Congrats Mengdie Wang and Dimpi Mukhopadhyay on Receiving Their Research Fellowships!

Post-Doctoral Fellow Mengdie Wang, Ph.D. received the U.S. Department of Defense Prostate Cancer Research Program, Early Investigator Award! 

Ph.D. candidate Dimpi Mukhopadhyay was named the co-recipient of the Zelda Haidak Memorial Scholarship in Cell Biology.

The Haidak Scholarship is named in honor of Zelda S. Haidak, the wife of long-time faculty member Gerald L. Haidak, M.D., to support female trainees working in the area of cell biology.

Congrats to Mengdie Wang and Dimpi Mukhopadhyay!!!! Job Well Done!!!

OUR PAPER ON PROMININ2'S ROLE IN FERROPTOSIS RESISTANCE IS PUBLISHED IN DEVELOPMENTAL CELL!

ABSTRACT

Ferroptosis, regulated cell death characterized by the iron-dependent accumulation of lethal lipid reactive oxygen species, contributes to tissue homeostasis and numerous pathologies, and it may be exploited for therapy. Cells differ in their sensitivity to ferroptosis, however, and a key challenge is to understand mechanisms that contribute to resistance. Using RNA-seq to identify genes that contribute to ferroptosis resistance, we discovered that pro-ferroptotic stimuli, including inhibition of the lipid hydroperoxidase GPX4 and detachment from the extracellular matrix, induce expression of prominin2, a pentaspanin protein implicated in regulation of lipid dynamics. Prominin2 facilitates ferroptosis resistance in mammary epithelial and breast carcinoma cells. Mechanistically, prominin2 promotes the formation of ferritin-containing multivesicular bodies (MVBs) and exosomes that transport iron out of the cell, inhibiting ferroptosis. These findings reveal that ferroptosis resistance can be driven by a prominin2-MVB-exosome-ferritin pathway and have broad implications for iron homeostasis, intracellular trafficking, and cancer.

 
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Brown CW, Amante JJ, Chhoy P, Elaimy AL, Haibo L, Zhu LJ, Baer CE, Dixon SJ, Mercurio AM. Prominin2 Drives Ferroptosis Resistance by Stimulating Multivesicular Body/Exosome-Mediated Iron Export. Developmental Cell. 14 November 2019.