AAA+ Unfoldase Motors: Powerful Protein Destroyers and Activators
2018-09-25 – Tania A. Baker, PhD – AAA+ Unfoldase Motors: Powerful Protein Destroyers and Activators
Tania A. Baker, PhD, presented the 2018 Carl and Gerty Cori Lecture on September 25, 2018 in Connor Auditorium, Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. Her seminar focused on “AAA+ Unfoldase Motors: Powerful Protein Destroyers and Activators.”
Dr. Baker is the Edwin C. Whitehead Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She received a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1983, and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Stanford University in 1988. Professor Baker’s graduate research was carried out in the laboratory of Professor Arthur Kornberg and focused on mechanisms of initiation of DNA replication. She did postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Kiyoshi Mizuuchi at the National Institutes of Health, studying the mechanism and regulation of DNA transposition.
The current research in Dr. Baker’s lab explores mechanisms and regulation of enzyme-catalyzed protein unfolding by the AAA+ unfoldase family of protein machines (also called the Clp/Hsp100 protein chaperones). ATP-dependent protein unfolding by these enzymes is critical for nearly all intracellular protein degradation, for promoting protein dis-aggregation and preventing the toxic buildup of damaged proteins, and for remodeling of the proteome during cellular stress responses. Recent results from the laboratory have also uncovered an unexpected link between protein remodeling and activation of heme biosynthesis in organisms as diverse as yeast and humans. To promote heme biosynthesis, a mitochondrial AAA+ unfoldase activates the first enzyme in heme production by accelerating the incorporation of a key chemical cofactor into this enzyme’s active site. Thus, it is now unquestionable that the AAA+ unfoldases can serve to activate, remodel or destroy their protein substrates, depending on the biological context.
Dr. Baker has served terms as both the Associate Head and Head of MIT’s Biology Department. Professor Baker received the 2001 Eli Lilly Research Award from the American Society of Microbiology. In 2000 she was awarded the MIT School of Science Teaching Prize for Undergraduate Education and in 2008 she was elected as a MacVicar Faculty Fellow for her contributions to education. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Microbiology. In 2014 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Stanford Medical Center Alumni Association. Dr. Baker is coauthor (with Arthur Kornberg) of the book DNA Replication (2nd edition) as well as of the 5th, 6th and 7th editions of Watson’s influential text Molecular Biology of the Gene. She lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with her husband, two (almost grown) children and five pets and enjoys sea kayaking, swimming, yoga and fiber arts.