Zernike seminar: Prof. Eric Reits "Improving mutant huntingtin degradation"

Huntington’s Disease (HD) is caused by the accumulation and aggregation of the N-terminal fragment of the huntingtin (HTT) protein. Improving selective degradation prior to oligomerization and aggregation would be a therapeutic strategy to prevent and delay onset of disease. Using a combination of advanced microscopy, biochemistry, mass spec and a chemical HTT toolbox we aim to improve ubiquitination and degradation of mutant HTT, including using a screening setup using untagged HTT. The implications of new insights in HD disease mechanism will be discussed, as well as potential strategies to combine expertise’s to target mutant HTT.