Anne Bertolotti Part 1: A Historical Perspective on Protein Phosphatases
There are many processes and signals in cells that must be turned on and off, sometimes very quickly. How is this done? One important way is via post-translational modification of proteins such as phosphorylation or dephosphorylation. In her first talk, Dr. Anne Bertolotti introduces us to protein phosphatases, the enzymes that remove phosphate from proteins and work in opposition to protein kinases. She gives a brief history of the early experiments that showed that phosphatases are vital to regulating the stability, localization and interactions of many proteins. Bertolotti also describes more recent work demonstrating that protein phosphatases are split enzymes with a catalytic subunit and a subunit that determines substrate specificity. This selective subunit makes phosphatases exquisitely specific and attractive targets for drug development.
View the full talk with additional resources on our website
Kinases and phosphatases perform a balancing act in cells by adding and removing phosphate groups from proteins. Dr. Bertolotti shows us that inhibiting specific protein phosphatases can reduce misfolded protein accumulation and reduce neurodegenerative disease. (Talk recorded in January 2019)
Dr. Anne Bertolotti’s research focuses on understanding and preventing the deposition of misfolded proteins in cells, a hallmark of numerous neurological diseases. Bertolotti has been a group leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK since 2006. Prior to joining the LMB, she was an Associate Professor at Ecole Normale Superieure in…