Shermali Gunawardena
University at Buffalo, NY·Neuroscience
Parkinson's disease (PD) destroys the dopamine-producing neurons that help control movement. It also leaves clumps called Lewy bodies inside brain cells.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biology
Biochemistry
- Topics
Parkinson's disease
alpha-synuclein
α-synuclein
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Nov 2026
What they work on
- Test whether the N-terminal region of α-synuclein, the Parkinson's-linked protein, controls how mitochondria break into smaller pieces, using transgenic Drosophila carrying N-terminal deletions.
- Test whether chemical modification sites at the C-terminal end of α-synuclein control mitochondrial damage and oxidation, using Drosophila lacking these sites.
- Separate the normal and disease roles of α-synuclein in mitochondrial health, using imaging in living flies, computational analysis of single mitochondria and biochemistry.
More about the research
What actually triggers the disease is unknown, and current treatments only ease symptoms. A main ingredient of Lewy bodies is α-synuclein (α-syn), a protein linked to many processes in mitochondria, the cell's energy-producing compartments. Studies disagree, however, about how normal α-syn supports mitochondria and how mutant α-syn damages them. Results have varied with the cell types used and how much α-syn was present.
Why it matters
Parkinson's disease has no cure, and approved treatments only relieve symptoms. Pinpointing which parts of α-synuclein support or harm mitochondria could reveal a shared disease pathway in inherited and sporadic PD. That knowledge could help researchers design treatments that protect mitochondria before neurons are lost and symptoms appear. It may also apply to related disorders, including stress-induced traumatic brain injury.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Serge Przedborski
Columbia University, NY·Neuroscience
Evaluate whether virus-delivered anti-α-Syn single-chain antibody fragments (scFvs) improve gut function and reduce gut pathology in transgenic L61 mice, which overproduce alpha-synuclein, using GI function tests and tissue analysis.
Mohammad Shahnawaz
University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX·Neuroscience
Detect and amplify small amounts of alpha-synuclein strains from body fluids and brain tissue of patients with Parkinson's disease, multiple system atrophy and dementia with Lewy bodies, using the seeding-based PMCA (RT-QuIC) assay.
Erin Barnhart
Columbia University, NY·Neuroscience
Compare calcium signals in the cytosol and in the endoplasmic reticulum, the neuron's main calcium store, across defined Drosophila motion vision cell types, using simultaneous in vivo imaging in living flies.
The school
University at Buffalo: 32 labs on PI Pages, $542M a year on research, 316 research doctorates a year.
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