|
|
|
The Dong lab was established in 2009 at the New England Primate Research Center. The lab aims to elucidate the molecular basis for the action of botulinum neurotoxins and also use these toxins as probes to study the fundamental cellular functions in neurons.
Botulinum neurotoxins are a diverse family of bacterial toxins that cause the disease botulism in humans and animals. These toxins pose one of the greatest security challenges as a category A potential bioterrorism agent. At the same time, they are also one of the most successful bacterial toxins utilized in modern medicine to treat human diseases, with annual sales over one billion dollars.
These neurotoxins target presynaptic nerve terminals and act as proteases to cleave three host proteins (SNARE proteins) that are essential for synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Blocking vesicle exocytosis abolishes the release of neurotransmitters from nerve terminals, and muscles are paralyzed due to loss of the input from nerves. In nature, this will immobilize poisoned humans and animals and cause death due to respiratory failure. Used as a therapeutic agent, minute levels of toxins are injected into a local area to shut down overactive neurons that are the cause of many disorders.
Botulinum neurotoxins have also played a significant role in revealing one of the most fundamental processes in biology – identification of SNARE proteins as the substrates for botulinum neurotoxins provided pivotal evidence for establishing these proteins as the universal membrane fusion machinery in eukaryotic cells. This illustrates that bacterial toxins are powerful probes to help us understand the fundamental machinery of cells.
The goals of our research are to provide a molecular basis for the development of toxin inhibitors, to improve and expand the therapeutic application of these toxins, and to broaden our understanding of the fundamental cellular processes targeted by these bacterial toxins.
Contact: Min Dong RSB-603, 1 Pine Hill Drive, New England Primate Research Center Harvard Medical School (Southborough campus) Southborough, MA, 01772 Email: donglab@hms.harvard.edu
|
|
Dong Lab N |
|
New England Primate Research Center Center
|
