~2024 News~
October
Hannah Ball, Abby Woods and Kevin Shen present their research on novel mechanisms in ALS and Alzheimer’s disease at the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) 2024 Annual Meeting.
August
Kevin Shen is appointed to the T32 Mechanisms of Aging and Dementia NIH Training Grant. Congrats Kevin!
June
Yvette Wong is an Invited Speaker on “Regulation and function of lysosomal inter-organelle contact sites in health and disease” at the 2024 Parseghian Scientific Conference for Niemann-Pick Type C Research.
May
Kevin Shen presents a first-author poster at Northwestern University’s 2024 Annual Alzheimer Day Conference on super-resolution imaging of organelles in Alzheimer’s disease primary microglia with Yvette Wong and Changiz Geula’s lab.
April
Yvette Wong publishes in Current Opinion in Cell Biology with Erika Holzbaur’s lab reviewing recent insights into the role and regulation of actin waves which cycle around mitochondria: “Mitochondrially-associated actin waves maintain organelle homeostasis and equitable inheritance”.
February
Yvette Wong publishes in Journal of Cell Biology with Leonie Schroder and Dimitri Krainc’s lab on the role of Parkinson’s disease-associated gene Vps13C in regulating lysosomal dynamics and function in dopaminergic neurons: “VPS13C regulates phospho-Rab10-mediated lysosomal function in human dopaminergic neurons”. Highlighted in Feinberg news.
~2023 News~
December
Eric Leisten, Abby Woods and Yvette Wong publish a Viewpoint in Journal of Cell Biology on recent insights into mitochondria-lysosome contact site function and misregulation in disease: “Super-resolution microscopy: Insights into mitochondria-lysosome crosstalk in health and disease”.
Yvette Wong is an Invited Speaker on “Misregulation of inter-organelle contact site dynamics and function in neurodegenerative diseases” at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB/EMBO – Cell Bio) 2023 Annual Meeting.
October
Yvette Wong, Tayler Belton, George Shum and Hannah Ball publish in PNAS with Nirupa Jayaraj, Dimitri Krainc, Rob Burgess and Daniela Menichella’s lab on defective axonal mitochondria-lysosome contact sites in peripheral neurons from a novel mouse model of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 2B: “Misregulation of mitochondria-lysosome contact dynamics in Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 2B disease Rab7 mutant sensory peripheral neurons”. Highlighted in Feinberg news.
September
Yvette Wong is awarded the 2023 Grass Foundation Award in Neuroscience from the American Neurological Association (ANA)!
Yvette Wong publishes in Neuron with Pingping Song and Dimitri Krainc’s lab: “Parkinson’s disease-linked parkin mutation disrupts recycling of synaptic vesicles in human dopaminergic neurons”.
July
Yvette Wong publishes in Science Advances with Wesley Peng (NUIN MD/PhD student), Leonie Schroder, and Pingping Song and Dimitri Krainc on Parkin’s regulation of mitochondria-lysosome contact sites: “Parkin regulates amino acid homeostasis at mitochondria-lysosome (M/L) contact sites in Parkinson’s disease.”
Yvette Wong is an Invited Speaker on “Mitochondria-lysosome contact site dynamics in disease” at the 2023 World Parkinson Congress.
June
Hannah Ball (DGP PhD Program) and Kevin Shen (NUIN PhD Program) pass their PhD Qualifying Exams. Congrats Hannah and Kevin!
George Shum graduates with his Undergraduate Degree with Honors in Neuroscience from Northwestern University for his undergraduate research in the Wong Lab. Congrats George!
May
Eric Leisten and Yvette Wong publish with the Popko lab in Glia on stress granules in oligodendrocytes: “Insights into the mechanism of oligodendrocyte protection and remyelination enhancement by the integrated stress response.”
Yvette Wong is an Invited Speaker on the “Dynamics of mitochondrial and lysosomal crosstalk at inter-organelle contact sites in health and neurodegeneration” at the JCS 2023: Imaging Cell Dynamics Meeting.
March
Yvette Wong discusses her work at the Northwestern’s MSTP blitz talk (MD/PhD program).
~2022 News~
November
Yvette Wong is an Invited Speaker on “Mitochondria-lysosome contacts and organelle dynamics in neurodegeneration” at the Minisymposia Session Powering Thoughts: The Regulation of Neuronal Energy Metabolism and Mitochondria on Sunday Nov 13 at the 2022 Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Annual Meeting.
October
Tayler Belton presents her poster on organelle contact sites in disease at the 2022 American Neurological Association (ANA) Annual Meeting.
September
Yvette Wong, Jasmine Cisneros and Catherine Molakal publish on the role of Mid51 and Fis1 regulating lysosomal tethering and connecting Rab7 and Drp1 GTP hydrolysis machinery, in Journal of Cell Biology with Soojin Kim, Pingping Song, Steven Lubbe and Dimitri Krainc: “Mid51/Fis1 mitochondrial oligomerization complex drives lysosomal untethering and network dynamics.”
Yvette Wong presents her research at the DGP PhD Program (Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences) 2022 Orientation.
June
George Shum is awarded the Northwestern University 2022 Neuroscience Undergraduate Research Grant to study mitochondria-lysosome contact sites in neurodegeneration. Congrats George!
Tayler Belton and Jasmine Cisneros present their poster, and Yvette Wong is an Invited Speaker and Career Roundtable Panelist at the Keystone Symposia – Neurodegeneration: The Biological Pathways Driving the Future of Therapeutic Development.
Yvette Wong is an Invited Speaker on inter-organelle contacts at the Gordon Research Conference – Lysosomes and Endocytosis.
May
Yvette Wong presents on roles of contact sites in health and disease at MitoTalks Down Under.
April
Jasmine Cisneros, Tayler Belton, George Shum, Catherine Molakal and Yvette Wong publish on the roles of mitochondria-lysosome contacts in disease in Trends in Neurosciences: “Mitochondria-lysosome contact site dynamics and misregulation in neurodegenerative diseases.”
Yvette Wong presents on the contribution of mitochondria-lysosome contacts in Parkinson’s disease as a virtual Invited Speaker at “Session 5: Interaction of α-synuclein with organellar pathways” at the Synuclein 2022 Meeting .
Catherine Molakal presents at her Undergraduate Research Conference on cellular defects in mitochondrial-associated mutations.
March
Tayler Belton, Jasmine Cisneros, Eric Leisten and Yvette Wong publish on dynamic imaging of contact sites in STAR Protocols: “Live cell microscopy of mitochondria-lysosome contact site formation and tethering dynamics.”
Tayler Belton and Yvette Wong publish on mitochondrial function in neuronal ALS models in Molecular Metabolism with the Kalb Lab: “Neurons undergo pathogenic metabolic reprogramming in models of familial ALS.”
Yvette Wong is an Invited Speaker on the crosstalk at mitochondria-lysosome contact sites at Mito Talks.
January
Tayler Belton is awarded the NINDS Diversity Supplement Research Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate organelle dynamics in disease. Congrats Tayler!
~2021 News~
December
The Wong lab celebrates its first lab virtual Christmas party!
November
The Wong lab presents their research on mitochondria-lysosome contacts (Jasmine Cisneros & George Shum) and organelle dynamics in neurodegeneration (Eric Leisten & Tayler Belton) at the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) 2021 Annual Meeting.
October
Yvette Wong is awarded the NIH Director’s DP2 New Innovator Award for early-career investigators conducting highly innovative research in the biomedical sciences. Highlighted in Feinberg news.
George Shum is a 2021 Fletcher Undergraduate Research Grant Prize Finalist, an award for the most outstanding 2021 Summer URG projects at Northwestern University. Congrats George!
Jasmine Cisneros and George Shum present their research on mitochondria-lysosome contact site regulation and defects in disease at the American Neurological Association (ANA) 2021 Annual Meeting. Yvette Wong gives a talk at the ANA: Neuromuscular 2 session on Monday, October 18.
September
Yvette Wong presents her research at the NUIN PhD Program 2021 Datablitz Talk (Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience) and the DGP PhD Program (Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences) 2021 Orientation.
July
Jasmine Cisneros is awarded the NINDS Diversity Supplement Research Grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate organelle dynamics in disease. Congrats Jasmine!
June
George Shum is awarded the Northwestern University 2021 Summer Undergraduate Research Grant to study inter-organelle contact sites in neurodegeneration. Congrats George!
April
Yvette Wong presents on mitochondria-lysosome contact sites as an Invited Speaker at the “Mitochondria Interest Group Session” (Mon April 26) at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) 2021 Annual Meeting.
March
Yvette Wong publishes in Nature Communications with Soojin Kim (NUIN PhD student) and Dimitri Krainc: “Dysregulation of mitochondria-lysosome contacts by GBA1 dysfunction in dopaminergic neuronal models of Parkinson’s disease.“
February
Yvette Wong publishes in Molecular Neurodegeneration with Dimitri Krainc & the Lenaers lab: “Dominant mutations in MIEF1 affect mitochondrial dynamics and cause a singular late onset optic neuropathy.”
~2020 News~
December
Yvette Wong co-chairs a Special Interest Subgroup on “Organelle Cross Talk and Contact Sites” at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB|EMBO) 2020 Annual Meeting.
October
Yvette Wong discusses her work at the Northwestern’s MSTP blitz talk (MD/PhD program) and presents her research on mitochondria-lysosome contact sites in neuronal homeostasis and disease as an Invited Speaker at the Molecular & Cellular Cognition Society (MCCS) 2020 Workshop.
September
Yvette Wong presents her research at the NUIN PhD Program (Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience) 2020 Retreat and DGP PhD Program (Driskill Graduate Program in Life Sciences) 2020 Orientation.
August
Yvette Wong publishes in PNAS with Wesley Peng (NUIN MD/PhD student) and Dimitri Krainc: “Mitochondria-lysosome contacts regulate mitochondrial Ca 2+ dynamics via lysosomal TRPML1.”
June
Yvette Wong presents her research with Dimitri Krainc & the Menichella lab on neuronal mitochondria-lysosome contacts in the peripheral neuropathy Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease at the Peripheral Nerve Society (PNS) 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting.
~2019 News~
December
Yvette Wong presents her research on mitochondria-lysosome contact site function as an Invited Speaker at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 2019 Annual Meeting in Washington DC.
October
Yvette Wong publishes a first-author Review in Movement Disorders with Dimitri Krainc: “Neuronal vulnerability in Parkinson disease: Should the focus be on axons and synaptic terminals?”.
Yvette Wong presents her research on mitochondria-lysosome contacts in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease at the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2019 Annual Meeting in Chicago.
August
Yvette Wong and Wesley Peng publish a first-author Paper in Developmental Cell with Dimitri Krainc: “Lysosomal Regulation of Inter-mitochondrial Contact Fate and Motility in Charcot-Marie-Tooth Type 2”. Highlighted in Feinberg news.
July
Yvette Wong publishes in Journal of Neuroscience with the Krainc lab (Taiji Tsunemi, Sohee Jeon & Kana Hamada): “Dopamine oxidation mediates mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease.”
April
Yvette Wong is awarded the Distinguished Scholars Fellowship from the Warren Alpert Foundation which supports postdoctoral researchers of exceptional creativity in the basic neurosciences. Highlighted in Feinberg news.
March
Yvette Wong publishes a first-author Review in Trends in Cell Biology with Soojin Kim, Wesley Peng & Dimitri Krainc: “Regulation and Function of Mitochondria-Lysosome Membrane Contact Sites in Cellular Homeostasis.”
Yvette Wong publishes in Trends in Neurosciences with the Krainc lab (Maria Nguyen, Dan Ysselstein & Alex Severino): “Synaptic, Mitochondrial, and Lysosomal Dysfunction in Parkinson’s Disease.”
~2018 News~
September
Yvette Wong is awarded the K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from NIH (NINDS).
April
Yvette Wong is awarded the Keystone Symposia Scholarship for the Mitochondrial Biology Meeting 2018.
February
Yvette Wong publishes a first-author Paper in Nature with Dan Ysselstein & Dimitri Krainc: “Mitochondria-lysosome contacts regulate mitochondrial fission via RAB7 GTP hydrolysis.” Highlighted in Feinberg news.
~2017 News~
December
Yvette Wong is awarded a Travel Award for the 2017 ASCB Doorstep Meeting, Cell Biology of Degeneration and Repair in the Nervous System.
Yvette Wong publishes in Human Molecular Genetics with the Krainc lab (Clarissa Valdez & Michael Schwake): “Progranulin-mediated deficiency of cathepsin D results in FTD and NCL-like phenotypes in neurons derived from FTD patients.”
November
Yvette Wong is awarded the Society for Neuroscience 2017 Trainee Professional Development Award.
October
Yvette Wong publishes in Neurology with the Krainc lab: “Analysis of blood-based gene expression in idiopathic Parkinson disease.”
September
Yvette Wong publishes in Science with the Krainc lab (Lena Burbulla, Pingping Song, Sohee Jeon & Judith Blanz): “Dopamine oxidation mediates mitochondrial and lysosomal dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease.” Highlighted in Feinberg news.
February
Yvette Wong publishes a first-author Review in Nature Medicine with Dimitri Krainc: “α-synuclein toxicity in neurodegeneration: mechanism and therapeutic strategies.”