Ke Zhang

Contact Information

Research Interests

I am interested in helping to unravel the molecular features that underlie neurodegenerative diseases. These diseases cause a progressive loss of the integrity and function of neurons and include ataxias, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Leigh syndrome and many others. They affect millions of people worldwide. Although different neurodegenerative diseases have different clinical presentations, they share similar phenomena. These include issues with lipid metabolism, protein aggregation, and mitochondrial dysfunctioning. I therefore believe that they share some common molecular mechanisms and I'm interested in the processes that trigger these diseases as well as the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the pathology. Through a large forward genetic screen in the fruitfly we have identified many mutants that exhibit a neurodegenerative phenotype. One of the mutants affects mitochondria and exhibits abnormal lipid accumulations in the nervous system. The human homolog of this gene has been reported to cause Leigh syndrome. I'm trying to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that underlie the neurodegenerative phenotypes in these mutant flies.