Upasana Gala

Contact Information

Research Interests

I am interested in studying the process of autophagy in specific relation to lysosomal storage diseases (LSD). LSDs are typically associated with deficiencies in lysosomal hydrolase leading to accumulation of its substrates. However there are many atypical LSDs that involve mutations in membrane proteins of ill-defined functions. One of the pathways that is intricately linked with lysosomes is autophagy. It is a catabolic process involved in degradation of cytosolic proteins and organelles. Since LSDs have lysosomal defects, autophagy seems like a good target to study. Although quite a bit is known about LSDs, the exact biological events leading to cellular dysfunction and ultimately cell death are not clearly understood. We are currently using both reverse genetics and forward genetics to address these questions. We use imprecise excision of elements inserted within or near genes that are known to be involved in human LSDs in order to generate a fly model of the disease. Once we have a model with interesting phenotypes we hope to elucidate the exact step where the block in autophagy occurs, and where subsequent aberrant lysosomal functional occurs in each case. Alongside, we are also performing a forward genetic screen, in which we pick interesting mutants based on altered Lysotracker staining in response to starvation, which is indicative of defective autophagy. We hope to discover new genes involved in the process of both LSDs as well as the increasingly fascinating field of autophagy.