Ding Di

Di Ding, a graduate student in the laboratory of Sanjoy K. Bhattacharya, associate professor at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, has published a major scientific report in the journal European Molecular Biology Organization.

In Ding’s study, published in collaboration with Professors Miguel Perez-Pinzon and Kunjan Dave of the Department of Neurology, she has shown an irreversible post-translational modification, deimination, as a regulator of mitochondrial co-translational protein import and contributor to neurodegeneration in demyelinating diseases.

Mitochondrial impairment is a critical factor in multiple sclerosis and glaucomatous degeneration associated with progressive irreversible visual dysfunction. Ding and co-authors have shown altered mRNA binding by a co-factor in deiminated state that affects co-translational mitochondrial import of an ATPase (ATP5b).