REGULATION OF ER-MITOCHONDRIA CONTACTS IN NEURODEGENERATION

在大脑中，大约有1000亿个神经细胞允许我们思考、记忆、看、听、说话等。神经细胞内部有不同的隔间，称为细胞器。我们称它们为细胞器，因为对于细胞来说，它们或多或少就像肝脏这样的器官对于整个身体一样。细胞器被膜包围；你可以把它们比作小气球。正如器官一样，细胞器也有特定的功能。我们对其中的两个细胞器特别感兴趣，称为线粒体和内质网(ER是内质网的缩写)。线粒体是将我们所吃的食物转化为细胞可以利用的能量的细胞器。它们基本上是身体的发电站。内质网是细胞中的一个地方，在那里细胞的各种组成部分，称为蛋白质和脂类，被制造出来，然后被送到细胞中的特定位置。线粒体和内质网可以在细胞器接触的地方交换能量和构建块。我们称这些地方为联系地点。很明显，当内质网和线粒体之间的接触部位被破坏时，这就会导致大脑疾病，如运动神经元病、痴呆症和帕金森氏症。我们不知道为什么会这样。我们发现了一种新的机制来控制内质网和线粒体之间的接触量，我们认为这种机制的过度激活可能是疾病中失去联系的原因。这个项目的目的是研究这种新的机制，以便我们更好地了解发生了什么。一旦我们知道了这一点，我们将尝试利用这一知识来寻找恢复细胞器之间联系的新方法。一旦我们可以恢复联系，我们就可以回答这样一个问题：这是否能保护培养皿中的神经元免于死亡。我们的希望是，情况会是这样，我们可以利用在这个项目中学到的东西作为起点，开发治疗脑部疾病的新药。

In the brain, approximately 100 billion nerve cells allow us to think, remember, see, hear, speak etc. Inside of the nerve cells there are different compartments, called organelles. We call them organelles because for a cell they are more or less what an organ such as the liver is for the whole body. Organelles are surrounded by membranes; you can compare them to little balloons. Just as organs, organelles have specific functions. We are particularly interested in two of these organelles, called mitochondria and ER (ER is short for Endoplasmic Reticulum). Mitochondria are the organelles that convert the food we eat into a form of energy that the cells can use. They basically are the power stations of the body. The ER is the place in the cell where various building blocks of the cell, called proteins and lipids are made and then sent to specific places in the cell. Mitochondria and ER can swap energy and building blocks between them at places where the organelles touch. We call these places contact sites. It has become clear that when contact sites between ER and mitochondria are disrupted that this contributes to brain diseases such as motor neuron disease, dementia and Parkinson's disease. We don't know why this is so.We have discovered a new mechanism that controls the amount of contact there is between the ER and mitochondria, and we believe that overactivation of this mechanism might be the reason that there is loss of contact in disease.The purpose of this project is to investigate this new mechanism so that we can better understand what is going on. Once we know this we will try to use this knowledge to find new ways of restoring the contacts between the organelles. Once we can restore the contacts we can answer the question if this protects neurones in a dish from dying. Our hope is that this will be the case and that we can use what we learn in this project as the starting point to develop new drugs to treat brain diseases.