Dr. Gilad Lehmann
I'm a researcher in the field of Life Sciences. My PhD mission was to find the cause(s) for the aging processes and my postdoc aims were to find out if the ubiquitin-proterasome system exists in mitochondria and in bacteria. After my postdoc I joined the lab of Hava-Gil Henn and participated in an adoptive cell transfer (immunotherapy) project.
PhD findings:
(i) The mitochondrial DNA base composition correlates with animal species lifespan (e.g., horse, pig, human etc.) . (ii) The mitochondrial DNA and metabolic rate correlate with lifespan but not with each other. They are two independent predictors of animals lifespan.
Postdoc findings:
(i) Ubiquitin-conjugates exist in the mitochondrial matrix. (ii) A new bacterial ubiquitin-like protein that we named UBact (for ubiquitin bacterial, see Wikipedia).
You can learn more about me and my work in my website.
MY RESEARCH
Determination of Animals Life-span
The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) base composition correlates with the maximum lifespan of animals. For decades it has been hypothesized that the mitochondria play important role in aging. This correlation implicate the mtDNA as the cellular "weakest link" during the proccess of aging.
Ubiquitin-proteasome system in bacteria
UBact (ubiquitin bacterial) is the second known ubiquitin analog found in bacteria, the first one being prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein (Pup). UBact is found in several phyla of gram-negative bacteria and its conjugation-degradation machinery is homologous to that of Pup.
Ubiquitin system inside the mitochondria!
The ubiquitin system is respinsible for quality management of damaged proteins and DNA in our cells. In my recent work I reported that the system exists inside the matrix of the mitochondria! Until now, the mitochondria were thought to lack this system. So far, I detected only monoubiquitylation of matrix proteins. Among the ubiquitylated proteins, I found the homolog of Mortalin, a protein that in humans is associated with cell immortality and is involved in Parkinson's diseases, Alzheimer's diseases and cancer. Clearly there is huge potential for more efforts to clarify the role and importance of the ubiquitin system inside the mitochondria.