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| Name |
Cuervo, Ana Maria |
| Location
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Albert Einstein College of Medicine |
| Primary Field
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Medical Physiology and Metabolism |
| Secondary Field
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Cellular and Developmental Biology |
 Election Citation
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Cuervo studies how malfunction of the lysosomal system is linked to aging and age-related disorders, including neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases.
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Research Interests
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The main focus of our laboratory is to understand how cytosolic proteins are transported into lysosomes for their degradation (autophagy) and how impaired autophagy contributes to aging and age-related diseases. A common feature of senescent cells is the accumulation of abnormal or damaged proteins in their cytosol that, undoubtedly, impairs cellular function. Protein accumulation results, at least in part, from impaired protein degradation with age. Among the different systems that participate in the intracellular degradation of proteins, lysosomes are the most affected by age. We have previously identified in many tissues of aged animals a decrease with age in the activity of a selective pathway for the degradation of cytosolic proteins in lysosomes known as chaperone-mediated autophagy. The main goal of our research is to identify the defect(s) that lead to the decreased activity of selective forms of autophagy with age and in age related pathologies, and to analyze if the correction of those defects and recovery of normal proteolytic activity in old cells leads to an improvement in cellular function. |
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