Richard I. Morimoto

Last updated
Richard I. Morimoto
Born
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Chicago
Known for Protein folding
Heat shock response
Molecular chaperones
Neurodegenerative diseases
Proteostasis
Scientific career
Fields Molecular biology
Biochemistry
Institutions Northwestern University
Doctoral advisor Murray Rabinowitz

Richard I. Morimoto is a Japanese American molecular biologist. He is the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Biology and Director of the Rice Institute for Biomedical Research at Northwestern University. [1]

Contents

Education and academic career

He holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, received a Ph.D. in biology (laboratory of Professor Murray Rabinowitz) from The University of Chicago in 1978, and conducted postdoctoral research (laboratory of Professor Matthew Meselson) [2] and was a Tutor in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. In 1982, Morimoto joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He served previously as the Chair of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology, the Dean of The Graduate School, and the Associate Provost of Graduate Education at Northwestern University. [3]

Civic leadership

Science

Morimoto is widely recognized for his research on the regulation of the heat shock stress response and the function of molecular chaperones. [5] His current research is to understand how organisms sense and respond to physiologic and environmental stress through the activation of genetic pathways that integrate stress responses with molecular and cellular responses that determine cell growth and cell death. The stress of misfolded and damaged proteins influences neuronal function and lifespan at the level of the organism. Consequently, these studies provide a molecular basis to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, ALS, and Alzheimer's disease. His laboratory has published over 250 papers and three monographs including two books on the Heat Shock Response and Molecular Chaperones from Cold Spring Harbor Press. During that period he received two MERIT awards from the National Institutes of Health and has been supported by the grants from the National Institutes for General Medical Science, National Institutes of Aging, National Institutes for Neurological Diseases and Stroke, American Cancer Society, Huntington's Disease Society of America, the Hereditary Disease Foundation, and the ALS Association. In addition to giving frequent talks at universities and scientific symposia throughout the world, he has been a visiting professor at the Technion University in Israel, Osaka University, Kyoto University, Kyoto Sangyo University, University of Rome, Beijing University, Åbo Akademi University in Finland, and École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He is a founder of Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. in Cambridge, MA, a biotech company that is discovering and developing novel small molecule therapeutics designed to control the body's protein homeostasis. These novel therapies are designed to treat multiple degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, cancer, and type II diabetes.

Science recognition

Significant papers

In pop culture

In a YouTube video [12] published in 2009, members of the Morimoto lab showed C. elegans forming a smiley face on a culture plate. The video description jokes that when a post doc in the lab told them to smile, the C. elegans, lacking faces as individuals, formed the smiley face as a group, suggesting that they are intelligent, have ears, and can work in groups. In reality, the footage is playing in reverse: the C. elegans were placed into that formation on the plate by a human and then crawled away. By reversing the footage, it looks like the C. elegans spontaneously form a smiley face. The video manipulation is hinted at in the description that reminds the viewers that the YFP is brighter in the individuals' head than their tails.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hsp70</span> Family of heat shock proteins

The 70 kilodalton heat shock proteins are a family of conserved ubiquitously expressed heat shock proteins. Proteins with similar structure exist in virtually all living organisms. Intracellularly localized Hsp70s are an important part of the cell's machinery for protein folding, performing chaperoning functions, and helping to protect cells from the adverse effects of physiological stresses. Additionally, membrane-bound Hsp70s have been identified as a potential target for cancer therapies and their extracellularly localized counterparts have been identified as having both membrane-bound and membrane-free structures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clusterin</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

In humans, clusterin (CLU) is encoded by the CLU gene on chromosome 8. CLU is an extracellular molecular chaperone which binds to misfolded proteins in body fluids to neutralise their toxicity and mediate their cellular uptake by receptor-mediated endocytosis. Once internalised by cells, complexes between CLU and misfolded proteins are trafficked to lysosomes where they are degraded. CLU is involved in many diseases including neurodegenerative diseases, cancers, inflammatory diseases, and aging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stress-induced-phosphoprotein 1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Stress-induced-phosphoprotein 1 also Hsp70-Hsp90 organising protein (Hop) is encoded in the human by the STIP1 gene. It functions as a co-chaperone which reversibly links together the protein chaperones Hsp70 and Hsp90.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heat shock response</span> Type of cellular stress response

The heat shock response (HSR) is a cell stress response that increases the number of molecular chaperones to combat the negative effects on proteins caused by stressors such as increased temperatures, oxidative stress, and heavy metals. In a normal cell, proteostasis must be maintained because proteins are the main functional units of the cell. Many proteins take on a defined configuration in a process known as protein folding in order to perform their biological functions. If these structures are altered, critical processes could be affected, leading to cell damage or death. The heat shock response can be employed under stress to induce the expression of heat shock proteins (HSP), many of which are molecular chaperones, that help prevent or reverse protein misfolding and provide an environment for proper folding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HSPA8</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Heat shock 70 kDa protein 8 also known as heat shock cognate 71 kDa protein or Hsc70 or Hsp73 is a heat shock protein that in humans is encoded by the HSPA8 gene on chromosome 11. As a member of the heat shock protein 70 family and a chaperone protein, it facilitates the proper folding of newly translated and misfolded proteins, as well as stabilize or degrade mutant proteins. Its functions contribute to biological processes including signal transduction, apoptosis, autophagy, protein homeostasis, and cell growth and differentiation. It has been associated with an extensive number of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, cell senescence, and aging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heat shock factor</span> Transcription factor

In molecular biology, heat shock factors (HSF), are the transcription factors that regulate the expression of the heat shock proteins. A typical example is the heat shock factor of Drosophila melanogaster.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HSPA1A</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Heat shock 70 kDa protein 1, also termed Hsp72, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HSPA1A gene. As a member of the heat shock protein 70 family and a chaperone protein, it facilitates the proper folding of newly translated and misfolded proteins, as well as stabilize or degrade mutant proteins. In addition, Hsp72 also facilitates DNA repair. Its functions contribute to biological processes including signal transduction, apoptosis, protein homeostasis, and cell growth and differentiation. It has been associated with an extensive number of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, cell senescence and aging, and inflammatory diseases such as Diabetes mellitus type 2 and rheumatoid arthritis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heat shock protein 90kDa alpha (cytosolic), member A1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Heat shock protein HSP 90-alpha is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HSP90AA1 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HSPA1B</span> Human gene

Human gene HSPA1B is an intron-less gene which encodes for the heat shock protein HSP70-2, a member of the Hsp70 family of proteins. The gene is located in the major histocompatibility complex, on the short arm of chromosome 6, in a cluster with two paralogous genes, HSPA1A and HSPA1L. HSPA1A and HSPA1B produce nearly identical proteins because the few differences in their DNA sequences are almost exclusively synonymous substitutions or in the three prime untranslated region, heat shock 70kDa protein 1A, from HSPA1A, and heat shock 70kDa protein 1B, from HSPA1B. A third, more modified paralog to these genes exists in the same region, HSPA1L, which shares a 90% homology with the other two.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heat shock factor protein 1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Heat shock factor protein 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HSF1 gene. HSF1 is highly conserved in eukaryotes and is the primary mediator of transcriptional responses to proteotoxic stress with important roles in non-stress regulation such as development and metabolism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Binding immunoglobulin protein</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Binding immunoglobulin protein (BiPS) also known as 78 kDa glucose-regulated protein (GRP-78) or heat shock 70 kDa protein 5 (HSPA5) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HSPA5 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HSPA4</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Heat shock 70 kDa protein 4 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HSPA4 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DNAJB1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

DnaJ homolog subfamily B member 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the DNAJB1 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HSPA1L</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

Heat shock 70 kDa protein 1L is a protein that in humans is encoded by the HSPA1L gene on chromosome 6. As a member of the heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) family and a chaperone protein, it facilitates the proper folding of newly translated and misfolded proteins, as well as stabilize or degrade mutant proteins. Its functions contribute to biological processes including signal transduction, apoptosis, protein homeostasis, and cell growth and differentiation. It has been associated with an extensive number of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, cell senescence and aging, and Graft-versus-host disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ERN1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

The serine/threonine-protein kinase/endoribonuclease inositol-requiring enzyme 1 α (IRE1α) is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ERN1 gene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protein aggregation</span> Accumulation of clumps of misfolded or disordered proteins

In molecular biology, protein aggregation is a phenomenon in which intrinsically-disordered or mis-folded proteins aggregate either intra- or extracellularly. Protein aggregates have been implicated in a wide variety of diseases known as amyloidoses, including ALS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and prion disease.

Proteostasis is the dynamic regulation of a balanced, functional proteome. The proteostasis network includes competing and integrated biological pathways within cells that control the biogenesis, folding, trafficking, and degradation of proteins present within and outside the cell. Loss of proteostasis is central to understanding the cause of diseases associated with excessive protein misfolding and degradation leading to loss-of-function phenotypes, as well as aggregation-associated degenerative disorders. Therapeutic restoration of proteostasis may treat or resolve these pathologies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JUNQ and IPOD</span> Types of cytosolic protein inclusion bodies

JUNQ and IPOD are types of cytosolic protein inclusion bodies in eukaryotes.

Chaperome refers to the ensemble of all cellular molecular chaperone and co-chaperone proteins that assist protein folding of misfolded proteins or folding intermediates in order to ensure native protein folding and function, to antagonize aggregation-related proteotoxicity and ensuing protein loss-of-function or protein misfolding-diseases such as the neurodegenerative diseases Alzheimer's, Huntington's or Parkinson's disease, as well as to safeguard cellular proteostasis and proteome balance.

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.

References

  1. "A Conversation with Richard Morimoto". Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology. 80: 336–337. 2015-01-01. doi: 10.1101/sqb.2015.80.030031 . ISSN   0091-7451. PMID   27325725.
  2. "Creating a path from the heat shock response to therapeutics of protein-folding diseases: an interview with Rick Morimoto". Disease Models & Mechanisms. 7 (1): 5–8. 2014-01-01. doi:10.1242/dmm.014753. ISSN   1754-8403. PMC   3882042 . PMID   24396148.
  3. Stephan, Terry (Fall 2003). "The Graduate School: Advancing Knowledge by Degree". Northwestern University.
  4. "Asian American Studies Program - Northwestern University". asianamerican.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-20.[ not specific enough to verify ]
  5. "Professor Richard Morimoto - Proteostasis Symposium 2017". Proteostasis Symposium 2017. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  6. Fellman, Megan (2011-04-19). "Faculty Members Named AAAS Fellows". Northwestern University. Archived from the original on 2011-04-25.
  7. "Åbo Akademi University Honorary Doctors". Åbo Akademi University.
  8. "Dr. Richard I. Morimoto". American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  9. Hogan, Mike (2011-05-23). "Awards honor outstanding UIC alumni". University of Illinois via Wordpress.com.
  10. "Professor Richard Morimoto awarded Les Palmes Académiques". Consulat Général de France à Chicago. Retrieved 2018-08-01.
  11. "Feodor Lynen Lecture & Medaille" (in German). German Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Archived from the original on 2017-02-09.
  12. C. elegans knows you're watching!. YouTube . Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine :