Susan Lindquist, Ph.D.
- Positions:
Professor
Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research (Cambridge, MA)
Investigator
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (Chevy Chase, MD)
Associate Member
Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard (Cambridge, MA)
Associate Member
David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT (Cambridge, MA)
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Degrees:
Ph.D., Biology, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)B.A., Microbiology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Urbana, IL)
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Past Advisors:
Hewson Swift (as Post Doctoral Fellow)Matthew S. Meselson (as Graduate Student - Ph.D.)
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Research:
Work in my lab covers a broad range of topics unified by one theme: the protein-folding problem. Through biochemistry and genetics we investigate the mechanisms of protein folding and the consequences of misfolding.
Susan Lindquist's work in protein folding has demonstrated that alternative protein conformations have profound and unexpected effects in fields as wide ranging as human disease, evolution, and biomaterials. Her work on yeast prions has provided evidence for a mechanism of protein-only inheritance and contributed to a structural understanding of amyloid fiber formation. She has shown that molecular chaperones can influence the expression and evolution of new traits by chaperoning the folding of key players in signal transduction pathways. Her group has also developed yeast models to study protein-folding transitions in neurodegenerative diseases and to test therapeutic strategies.
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Other Experience:
1988-2001 Professor, Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago
Susan Lindquist's Genealogy
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One Figure
Left: yeast cells expressing low levels of fluorescent green-tagged human alpha-synuclein; Right: yeast cells expressing high levels. Overexpression of alpha-synuclein causes formation of protein foci and kills the cells.
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