Current Lab Members

My research focuses on understanding the underlying mechanisms in neurodegenerative diseases with the goal to identify effective strategies for treatment. My current project in the Morimoto lab aims to uncover the spatio-temporal dynamics of proteostasis capacity in healthy aging and in protein conformational diseases using C. elegans as a model system.

As the C. elegans technician for the Morimoto lab, I perform assays such as lifespan, heat shock, and RNAi genetic screens. I train new members of the lab in C. elegans techniques and prepare the published strains you request.

After spending many years at Umass-Amherst studying the molecular mechanisms of Hsp70 chaperone function, I transitioned into a role that combines my scientific expertise with project management. My work now centers on managing and coordinating multi-lab research projects to support scientific discovery and ensure project goals are met. As the Chief Scientific Officer for the Proteostasis Consortium, I focus on facilitating cross-lab collaboration, ensuring adherence to SOPs, and driving the progress of research milestones across various teams to support the overall project goals.

I am involved on projects understanding the regulation of protein homeostasis in the context of age-associated protein-misfolding diseases. Our work aims to establish a cellular model for Alzheimer’s disease and taupothies using patient-derived neurons by direct neuronal reprogramming of dermal fibroblasts.  I am also involved in small molecule screens to identify regulators of the proteostasis network that enhance the protein folding cellular environment to prevent conformational diseases.  As laboratory manager I also oversee laboratory stocks and reagent requests.

My research focuses on understanding the underlying mechanisms of diseases and assessing potential therapeutic targets. As a master’s student, I will be involved in C. elegans research projects in the lab.

My research focusses on utilising computational and data-driven approaches to explore the relationship between proteostasis and healthy ageing. Building on work from the Proteostasis Consortium, I will aim to utilise the annotated human proteostasis network (PN) to define a framework for health, subsequently investigating various protein conformational diseases. Additionally, I will study the PN in model organisms, such as C. elegans and yeast, to facilitate experimental biology techniques.

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Student In the Interdisciplinary Biological Sciences Ph.D Program.

My rotation project under postdoc Alex Rodriguez Gama aims to investigate the relationship between the heat shock response network and the innate immune response in C.elegans. ​​

Parul received the highly competitive Long Term ICMR-DHR International Fellowship for Young Biomedical Scientist 2023-24 from the Indian Medical Research Council and will be working with lab members to develop and realize new tools and approaches to enhance proteostasis to prevent protein misfolding and aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases.    

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I am the Project Administrator for the 4-year, 2-lab/institution grant, "The Metastable Subproteome: Sensor, Risk-Factor and Predictor of Healthy Aging" and 5-year 7-lab grant, "Proteostasis Rejuvenation for Healthy Human Aging" from the Hevolution Foundation.

I maintain the Proteostasis Consortium website and seminar series as well as the Morimoto Lab website. In addition, each year, I work with  co-chairs to plan the annual Midwest Stress and Molecular Chaperone Meeting (MWSM) as well as other departmental and grant-related meetings and retreats. When I'm not working on all of the above, I also manage the lab's other grants, finances, and general administration.

My research aims to interrogate how stress response against exogenous stimuli shapes proteostasis and contributes to aging. I will implement tools to control at the spatiotemporal resolution the activation of stress responses in different tissues in C. elegans to measure their impact on proteostasis and aging.

My research is focused on the optimization of novel therapeutics to minimize the toxic effect of aggregates observed in neurodegenerative diseases. In the Morimoto lab using in-vitro models and a combination of biochemical and cellular biology techniques, my work aims to identify potential protein targets and the biological mode of action of small molecules with therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative disorders.  

Anticipating a never-dull career in biology, Thomas pursued molecular biology studies in Vienna, working with Juergen Knoblich on fruit fly research. For his PhD in Zurich, he joined the team of Lucas Pelkmans and co-pioneered the first generation of spatial transcriptomics. Later, as a postdoc, he joined Luis Amaral's lab at Northwestern as a Data Science Scholar, focusing on the mechanics of scientific research. This interest segued into research on aging alongside Rick Morimoto and Scott Budinger. With the backing of a K99/R00 grant, Thomas became an Assistant Professor in Northwestern’s Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care and The Potocsnak Longevity Institute and Simpson Querrey Lung Institute for Translational Science in October 2023. Link to past publications and GitHub.

My research goal is to uncover new protein quality control mechanisms and understand how their failure contributes to protein conformational diseases including neurodegenerative diseases. I do this by using cutting-edge proteomics at a massive scale, biochemistry, and genetics to manipulate specific pathways in C. elegans.

My research focuses on interindividual variation in proteostasis and cell stress responses. I develop new tools to investigate this phenomenon in C. elegans, with the goal to identify specific genes and pathways that contribute to this variability.

The C. elegans proteostasis network is robust throughout development but rapidly diminishes immediately after the onset of egg laying. This proteostasis collapse is a programmed event triggered by the germline and involves enrichment of repressive chromatin marks at proteostasis network gene promoters. My research focuses on understanding the epigenetic regulation of proteostasis collapse as well as the nature of the germline signal that triggers it.

I use a single-cell analysis approach to study the temporal and molecular details of proteostasis collapse in cell models of aging and protein aggregation. Currently, I am focusing on studying tau proteotoxicity using induced neurons obtained through direct neuronal reprogramming of patient-derived dermal fibroblasts.  With help from Sue and undergraduate students, we are exploring small-molecule strategies to restore proteostasis in cell model systems of protein aggregation.

Cellular proteostasis and stress response pathways, such as the heat shock response (HSR), are regulated in a cell-nonautonomous manner via mechanisms involving thermosensory AFD neurons and transcellular chaperone signalling. My research will focus on investigating how these nonautonomous proteostasis pathways are modulated during development and aging.