Profile
The central question we are interested is understanding the mechanism of long lasting memory. Addressing this might also provide us answers to what goes wrong in age associated memory problems and how to find potential cures. Towards this we are working on the regulation of a translation regulator Orb2 which behaves like a functional-prion. Loss of the prion-like property of Orb2 causes a failure to maintain long-term memory. We are attempting to understand how this protein is regulated in the brain. We also are addressing cross-talk of this translation regulator with misfolded proteins associated with neurodegenerative disorders. We are also working on other aggregating proteins involved in neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental conditions (Huntington’s disease, ALS, autism, eye development).
Current Focus Areas
The theme of our research is aggregation and how it controls physiological processes like, regulation of a functional prion/amyloid Orb2 in the context of long-term memory, condensate behavior of transcription factor regulating eye development and diseases associated with regulation of protein synthesis and misfolding like autism, Huntington’s disease and ALS.
Selected Publications
Desai M, Hemant, Deo A, Naik J, Dhamale P, Kshirsagar A, Bose T, Majumdar A. Mrj is a chaperone of the Hsp40 family that regulates Orb2 oligomerization and long-term memory in Drosophila. PLoS Biol. 2024 Apr 22;22(4):e3002585. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002585. PMID: 38648719; PMCID: PMC11034981.
Joag H, Ghatpande V, Desai M, Sarkar M, Raina A, Shinde M, Chitale R, Deo A, Bose T, Majumdar A. A role of cellular translation regulation associated with toxic Huntingtin protein. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2020 Sep;77(18):3657-3670. doi: 10.1007/s00018-019-03392-y. Epub 2019 Dec 3. PMID: 31796991.