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PETER HOLLENBECK
| Professor, and Associate Head LILY 2-237 496-3378 CV: Link |
Nerve cells are the longest cells in the body: their relative dimensions can approximate those of a hose 1 inch in diameter and thousands of feet long. This allows individual nerve cells to convey messages rapidly in the nervous system, but also requires that they transport the energy sources and raw materials that they need over enormous distances. In my laboratory we are working to determine how nerve cells accomplish and coordinate this long-range movement, and how the process goes awry in neurodegenerative diseases. We are particularly interested in how nerve cells redistribute mitochondria, the organelle that is major source of chemical energy in the cell, over long distances. To observe and perturb nerve cells directly, we remove them from the nervous system of chick or Drosophila embryos and induce them to grow in a culture dish, where we can study their responses to specific molecular events using computer-enhanced light microscopy. We also measure events in the nerve axons directly in Drosophila larvae. Using these methods, we have gained insight into how mitochondria are moved, and how the cell uses molecular signals to send them to the right part of the axon at the right time, as well as how their activity and replication are regulated across time and distance.
Outside of my laboratory, I serve the national Tourette Syndrome Association as the chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board, and as a public speaker. I assist the organization in directing research funds to neuroscientists, geneticists, and clinicians whose work holds promise for understanding and curing Tourette Syndrome, an inherited neurological movement disorder. I also give presentations throughout the country on behalf of the Association to children and families affected by Tourette Syndrome and to groups of doctors and educators who work with them.
Education
Ph.D., California, Berkeley, 1984
Professional Faculty Research
(Neurobiology) Intracellular organelle transport in neurons.
Awards
The Top Teacher in College of Science Award, 2008
Named to Purdue University Teaching Academy, 2007
Top Ten Teacher in College of Science Award, 2005, 2006, 2007
Purdue Seeds of Success Award for winning research grants in excess of $1,000,000; 2004
Chiscon Undergraduate Teaching Award, 2004
Grants
NIH-Control of Neuronal Organelle Transport
Other Activities
Grant Review and Study Sections
- NIH, NSF
- American Cancer Society
- Tourette Syndrome Association
Advisory Boards
- Tourette Syndrome Association Scientific Advisory Board, 1997-present; Vice-Chair, May 2004-present
- NIMH/NIH Council (2005-2008)
Recent Research Presentations
- Transport, fission and function: the life-cycle of mitochondria in the nervous system. Gordon Research Conference on Molecular and Cellular Bioenergetics, Andover, NH, June 11, 2009
- How are mitochrondrial transport and function regulated in neurons?, St Jude's Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, May 6, 2009
- A Drosophila model of Friedreich ataxia shows disrupted mitochondrial transport and membrane potential but no increased ROS production, Federation of European Neuroscience Societies meeting, Geneva Switzerland, July 13, 2008.
- Mitochondrial transport, membrane potential and ROS production in a Drosophila model of Friedreich ataxia, United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation Symposium, Indianapolis, IN, June 26, 2008.
- Mitochondrial transport, membrane potential and ROS production in a Drosophila model of Friedreich ataxia, Nature Genetics/IPSEN Foundation Symposium on Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neurological Disease, Duke University, Durham, NC, December 5, 2008.
- RNAi Suppression of Motor Proteins in Drosophila Primary Neurons: Dissection of the Axonal Transport for Mitochondria, Mini-symposium on RNA Silencing Mechanisms, 47th Annual American Society for Cell Biology national meetings, Washington, DC, December 5, 2007
- Mitochondria in the nervous system: transport, activity and biogenesis, Banbury Conference on Axonal Dynamics and Synaptic Junctions, Cold Springs Harbor, NY, October 30, 2006
- Axonal transport, activity and biogenesis of mitochondria, Golden Research Conference on Mitochondria and Chloroplasts, Magdalen College, Oxford, England, August 14, 2006
- Axonal transport of mitochondria, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL April 5, 2005.
Conferences
- Federation of European Neuroscience Societies meeting, Geneva Switzerland, July 12-16, 2008.
- United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation Symposium, Indianapolis, IN, June 25-28, 2008.
- Nature Genetics/IPSEN Foundation Symposium on Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neurological Disease, Duke University, Durham, NC, December 4-5, 2008.
- 47th Annual American Society for Cell Biology national meetings, Washington, DC, December 1-5, 2007.
- Banbury Conference on Axonal Dynamics and Synaptic Junctions, Cold Spring Harbor, NY, October 30-31, 2006.
- Gordon Research Conference on Mitochondria and Chloroplasts, Magdalen College, Oxford, England, August 13-18, 2006.
- 45th Annual American Society for Cell Biology national meetings, San Francisco, CA, December 8-12, 2005.
- 4th International Scientific and Clinical Symposium on Tourette Syndrome, Cleveland, OH, June 25-27, 2004. Steering Committee.
- Tourette Syndrome Association Young Investigators Conference, Atlanta, GA, January 31, 2004. Meeting organizer and Program Director.