Marcia Carmen Haigis | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Madison University of New Hampshire |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Harvard Medical School |
Thesis | Dissecting the mechanisms of a toxic ribonuclease (2002) |
Academic advisors | Leonard P. Guarente |
Doctoral students | Lydia W. S. Finley |
Marcia Carmen Haigis is an American biologist and professor in the Department of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. Her research looks to understand the metabolic circuitry of mitochondria, and how it impacts human health and disease. She was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2024.
Haigis was born in Las Vegas and moved to South Korea as a child. Her father was an officer in the United States Air Force. Haigis spent her early life moving between Nebraska and Alabama, before settling in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. [1] She was a freshman at the University of New Hampshire. [1] Here she trained as an emergency medical technician, accumulating hours of experience to be a member of the ambulance corps. [1] During her undergraduate studies Haigis discovered medical research, and spent her summers as a lab intern working on protein chemistry. Haigis trained in biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her doctoral research looked to understand the mechanisms of toxic ribonuclease. [2] She learned a lot about protein folding and Sirtuin 1. [1] She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she specialized in mitochondrial metabolics with Leonard P. Guarente. [1] Here she started working on SIRT3, SIRT4 and SIRT5. Amongst her many findings, she showed that SIRT4 repressed glutamate dehydrogenase 1, which suppressed insulin secretion. [1]
Haigis looks to understand the role of mitochondria in human health. [3] In particular, Haigis has studied how the enzymatic networks in the mitochondrion modulate a cell's metabolism. [1] She joined the Harvard Medical School in 2006. One of her first graduate students, Lydia W. S. Finley, demonstrated that expression of genes critical to glycolysis was boosted when SIRT3 decreased. [1] The SIRT3 gene is the most depleted in tumor cells – it drives cancel cell proliferation, and mice lacking in SIRT3 result in mice spontaneously developing breast tumors.
Haigis has demonstrated the role of mitochondrial sirtuins (a protein family involved in the regulation of biological processes) in metabolism and disease. She revealed that ammonia, a metabolic waste product that is lethal to most biological tissue, was used to boost the growth of cancer cells. [1] She has shown that damage to DNA (which can accelerate cancer) activates the SIRT4 gene, and mice lacking SIRT4 developed spontaneous lung tumors. [1] Her lab also demonstrated that prolyl-hydroxylase 3 (PHD3), a signaling enzyme, breaks down fats inside the mitochondrion, and is suppressed in a subset of cancers (including acute myeloid leukemia). [1]
The citric acid cycle—also known as the Krebs cycle, Szent–Györgyi–Krebs cycle, or TCA cycle —is a series of biochemical reactions to release the energy stored in nutrients through the oxidation of acetyl-CoA derived from carbohydrates, fats, proteins, and alcohol. The chemical energy released is available in the form of ATP. The Krebs cycle is used by organisms that respire to generate energy, either by anaerobic respiration or aerobic respiration. In addition, the cycle provides precursors of certain amino acids, as well as the reducing agent NADH, that are used in numerous other reactions. Its central importance to many biochemical pathways suggests that it was one of the earliest components of metabolism. Even though it is branded as a "cycle", it is not necessary for metabolites to follow only one specific route; at least three alternative segments of the citric acid cycle have been recognized.
A mitochondrion is an organelle found in the cells of most eukaryotes, such as animals, plants and fungi. Mitochondria have a double membrane structure and use aerobic respiration to generate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is used throughout the cell as a source of chemical energy. They were discovered by Albert von Kölliker in 1857 in the voluntary muscles of insects. Meaning a thread-like granule, the term mitochondrion was coined by Carl Benda in 1898. The mitochondrion is popularly nicknamed the "powerhouse of the cell", a phrase popularized by Philip Siekevitz in a 1957 Scientific American article of the same name.
Glutamate dehydrogenase is an enzyme observed in both prokaryotes and eukaryotic mitochondria. The aforementioned reaction also yields ammonia, which in eukaryotes is canonically processed as a substrate in the urea cycle. Typically, the α-ketoglutarate to glutamate reaction does not occur in mammals, as glutamate dehydrogenase equilibrium favours the production of ammonia and α-ketoglutarate. Glutamate dehydrogenase also has a very low affinity for ammonia, and therefore toxic levels of ammonia would have to be present in the body for the reverse reaction to proceed. In the brain, the NAD+/NADH ratio in brain mitochondria encourages oxidative deamination. In bacteria, the ammonia is assimilated to amino acids via glutamate and aminotransferases. In plants, the enzyme can work in either direction depending on environment and stress. Transgenic plants expressing microbial GLDHs are improved in tolerance to herbicide, water deficit, and pathogen infections. They are more nutritionally valuable.
Sirtuins are a family of signaling proteins involved in metabolic regulation. They are ancient in animal evolution and appear to possess a highly conserved structure throughout all kingdoms of life. Chemically, sirtuins are a class of proteins that possess either mono-ADP-ribosyltransferase or deacylase activity, including deacetylase, desuccinylase, demalonylase, demyristoylase and depalmitoylase activity. The name Sir2 comes from the yeast gene 'silent mating-type information regulation 2', the gene responsible for cellular regulation in yeast.
Acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, long chain is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ACADL gene.
Apoptosis inducing factor is involved in initiating a caspase-independent pathway of apoptosis by causing DNA fragmentation and chromatin condensation. Apoptosis inducing factor is a flavoprotein. It also acts as an NADH oxidase. Another AIF function is to regulate the permeability of the mitochondrial membrane upon apoptosis. Normally it is found behind the outer membrane of the mitochondrion and is therefore secluded from the nucleus. However, when the mitochondrion is damaged, it moves to the cytosol and to the nucleus. Inactivation of AIF leads to resistance of embryonic stem cells to death following the withdrawal of growth factors indicating that it is involved in apoptosis.
The malate–aspartate shuttle is a biochemical system for translocating electrons produced during glycolysis across the semipermeable inner membrane of the mitochondrion for oxidative phosphorylation in eukaryotes. These electrons enter the electron transport chain of the mitochondria via reduction equivalents to generate ATP. The shuttle system is required because the mitochondrial inner membrane is impermeable to NADH, the primary reducing equivalent of the electron transport chain. To circumvent this, malate carries the reducing equivalents across the membrane.
Elaine V. Fuchs is an American cell biologist known for her work on the biology and molecular mechanisms of mammalian skin and skin diseases, who helped lead the modernization of dermatology. Fuchs pioneered reverse genetics approaches, which assess protein function first and then assess its role in development and disease. In particular, Fuchs researches skin stem cells and their production of hair and skin. She is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Rebecca C. Lancefield Professor of Mammalian Cell Biology and Development at The Rockefeller University.
The mitochondrial shuttles are biochemical transport systems used to transport reducing agents across the inner mitochondrial membrane. NADH as well as NAD+ cannot cross the membrane, but it can reduce another molecule like FAD and [QH2] that can cross the membrane, so that its electrons can reach the electron transport chain.
NAD-dependent deacetylase sirtuin 2 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the SIRT2 gene. SIRT2 is an NAD+ -dependent deacetylase. Studies of this protein have often been divergent, highlighting the dependence of pleiotropic effects of SIRT2 on cellular context. The natural polyphenol resveratrol is known to exert opposite actions on neural cells according to their normal or cancerous status. Similar to other sirtuin family members, SIRT2 displays a ubiquitous distribution. SIRT2 is expressed in a wide range of tissues and organs and has been detected particularly in metabolically relevant tissues, including the brain, muscle, liver, testes, pancreas, kidney, and adipose tissue of mice. Of note, SIRT2 expression is much higher in the brain than all other organs studied, particularly in the cortex, striatum, hippocampus, and spinal cord.
NAD-dependent deacetylase sirtuin-3, mitochondrial also known as SIRT3 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the SIRT3 gene [sirtuin 3 ]. SIRT3 is member of the mammalian sirtuin family of proteins, which are homologs to the yeast Sir2 protein. SIRT3 exhibits NAD+-dependent deacetylase activity.
Sirtuin 5 , also known as SIRT5 is a protein which in humans in encoded by the SIRT5 gene and in other species by the orthologous Sirt5 gene.
Sirtuin 4, also known as SIRT4, is a mitochondrial protein which in humans is encoded by the SIRT4 gene. SIRT4 is member of the mammalian sirtuin family of proteins, which are homologs to the yeast Sir2 protein. SIRT4 exhibits NAD+-dependent deacetylase activity.
Mitochondrial biogenesis is the process by which cells increase mitochondrial numbers. It was first described by John Holloszy in the 1960s, when it was discovered that physical endurance training induced higher mitochondrial content levels, leading to greater glucose uptake by muscles. Mitochondrial biogenesis is activated by numerous different signals during times of cellular stress or in response to environmental stimuli, such as aerobic exercise.
Joan S. Brugge is the Louise Foote Pfeiffer Professor of Cell Biology and the Director of the Ludwig Center at Harvard Medical School, where she also served as the Chair of the Department of Cell Biology from 2004 to 2014. Her research focuses on cancer biology, and she has been recognized for her explorations into the Rous sarcoma virus, extracellular matrix adhesion, and epithelial tumor progression in breast cancer.
MicroRNA 34a (miR-34a) is a microRNA that in humans is encoded by the MIR34A gene.
The mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) is a cellular stress response related to the mitochondria. The UPRmt results from unfolded or misfolded proteins in mitochondria beyond the capacity of chaperone proteins to handle them. The UPRmt can occur either in the mitochondrial matrix or in the mitochondrial inner membrane. In the UPRmt, the mitochondrion will either upregulate chaperone proteins or invoke proteases to degrade proteins that fail to fold properly. UPRmt causes the sirtuin SIRT3 to activate antioxidant enzymes and mitophagy.
David R. Gius is an American physician-scientist the Zell Family Scholar Professor, Women's Cancer Research Program director, and Vice Chair of Translational Research at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Radiation Oncology and Pharmacology. His research focuses into the mechanistic connection between aging, cellular and/or mitochondrial metabolism, and carcinogenesis focusing on the Sirtuin gene family.
The citrate-malate shuttle is a series of chemical reactions, commonly referred to as a biochemical cycle or system, that transports acetyl-CoA in the mitochondrial matrix across the inner and outer mitochondrial membranes for fatty acid synthesis. Mitochondria are enclosed in a double membrane. As the inner mitochondrial membrane is impermeable to acetyl-CoA, the shuttle system is essential to fatty acid synthesis in the cytosol. It plays an important role in the generation of lipids in the liver.
Paola A. Marignani is a scientist and Full Professor at Dalhousie University in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She is best known for her research on the tumor suppressor kinase LKB1, and its role in regulating the chromatin remodeling protein SMARCA4 and modeling metabolic processes in breast and lung cancers.
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