CEROX-miRNA control of mitochondrial OXPHOS activities in health and disease

Low mitochondrial enzymatic activity is a shared feature of many neurological disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington’s disease and certain forms of brain cancer. Professor Ponting aims to explore the role of long non-coding RNA and micro-RNA in mitochondrial enzymatic activity, and will focus on a novel class of RNAs, termed competitive endogenous RNAs, which he has shown to affect oxidative phosphorylation. A diverse range of experimental and computational approaches will be used, as well as newly generated animal models. The ultimate goal is to ameliorate oxidative stress in iPS cell lines from patients with a variety of neurodegenerative or neuropsychiatric diseases including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.