NEBS

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NEBS
New England Bioscience SocietyWhere
communications blossom
President Jayoung Kim
The 161th NEBS Monthly Meeting
Membership Committee
Conference Committee
Finance Committee
Public Relations Committee
Jee-Yeong Jeong Ji Hye Paik Yoon Jae Song Soo Wol
Chung
Seung-Hwan Kim Byung Il Lee
Yong Seek Park Sung Woo Lee Woo Hyun Park
Kichang Lee Yoon Yeo Kyu Won Baek Bok Yoon
Kang Yoo Sang Gwack Jae Hong Park
NEBS KOREAhttp//www.nebskorea.orgNEBS
OfficeJayoung Kim, Ph. D23rd NEBS President
Staff Scientist/InstructorThe Urological
Diseases Research CenterDepartment of
UrologyChildren's Hospital Boston/Harvard
Medical School617-919-2639 (lab)ja.kim_at_childrens
.harvard.edu
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The 161th NEBS Monthly Meeting
Hyemyung Seo, PhD Assistant Professor Division
of Molecular Life Science, Hanyang University
Dear NEBS membersWelcome to the 161th Monthly
Meeting of the New England Bioscience Society.
Today, we are very glad to have Dr. Hyemyung
Seo, an Assistant Professor at the Division of
Molecular Life Science, Hanyang University as
one of the Special Speakers 2005.NEBS is a
biological and medical professional group based
in the New England area, and include the States
of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut,
Rhode Island, Vermont and Maine. NEBS consists of
Korean and Korean/American scientists, engineers
and clinicians who are engaged in diverse areas
of biological/medical sciences at universities,
institutes, hospitals and companies from the New
England area. NEBS, since its foundation in 1984,
has been dedicated to one single most important
goal to promote scientific and social
communications among the members. To date, more
than two thousands of outstanding scientists and
clinicians actively participating in and
contributing to NEBS. After 20 years of history,
over 500 Korean scientists from almost 30
different schools, institutes and companies
around New England are registered in our
NEBS. Following is the schedule for the
meeting.July 28th 2005, Thursday, 630
pmBrigham and Women's Hospital, Carrie
Hall.630 - 650 pm Social Hour and Dinner650
- 730 pm Seminar I Dr. Hyemyung Seo (Hanyang
University)730 - 740 pm Break740 - 820 pm
Seminar II Dr. Woong-Ki Kim (HMS)Thank you very
much.best wishes,Jayoung Kim, Ph. D23rd NEBS
President
Professional Experience Jan. 1999 - Sept. 2001
Research Fellow, McLean Hospital, Harvard
University Sept. 2001 - present
Instructor, Program of Neuroscience, Harvard
Medical School Sept. 2004 present
Assistant Professor, Division of Molecular Life
Science, Hanyang University Honors and
Awards Nov. 1996 Research award from Society of
Korean Neuroscientists in USA Oct. 1998 Excellent
Research Award from U of Tennessee, Memphis Jul.
2002 Research award from Alzheimers association
in the 8th international conference of
Alzheimers disease and related disorders Title
Generalized brain and skin proteasome inhibition
in Huntingtons disease Mutated intracellular
huntingtin is widely expressed in tissues of
Huntingtons disease (HD) patients. Intraneuronal
nuclear protein aggregates of mutant huntingtin
are present in HD brains, suggesting a
dysfunction of the ubiquitin proteasome system
(UPS). Since many cells and tissues can cope with
the abnormal gene effects while others
dysfunction and die, we determined gene-induced
effects and considered the hypothesis that the
gene causes multiple intracellular problems, but
severe pathology is only seen in selected brain
regions. In the present study, we found
inhibition of UPS function in both early (0-1
with no or little neuronal loss) and late (3-4
with more severe neuronal loss) stage HD
patients cerebellum, cortex, substantia nigra
and caudate-putamen brain regions. Late HD stage
increases in ubiquitin levels were unique to
caudate-putamen. HD patients skin fibroblasts
also had UPS inhibition similar to brain despite
increases in proteasome ?-subunit expression.
Gene delivery and expression of proteasome
activator PA28 increased UPS function in normal
but not HD fibroblasts. These generalized UPS
problems are associated with severe neuronal
pathology only when coupled with decreases in
BDNF levels, mitochondrial complex II/III
activity and increases of ubiquitin levels
particularly as seen in the caudate-putamen of HD
patients.