
N375 Life Science Laboratories
240 Thatcher Road
Amherst, MA 01003
dmuhammad@umass.edu
https://www.umass.edu/biochemistry-molecular-biology/about/directory/du…
Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Peroxisomes are metabolic organelles that house numerous reactions required for life in plants and animals. These metabolic pathways produce toxic byproducts that act as signaling molecules and can cause protein and membrane damage. Peroxisomes import proteins to carry out the various metabolic pathways, enzymes that sequester oxidative molecules, chaperones that unfold, refold, and disaggregate misfolded and aggregated proteins, and proteases that degrade damaged or obsolete substrates. My lab studies the 3 Rs of sustainability in and around peroxisomes, which extends to whole-cell homeostasis and organelle function. REDUCE: We are working to understand the systems used in peroxisomes to reduce oxidative damage. REUSE: We are working to elucidate when and how LON2 (a multifunctional protein with chaperone and proteolytic activity) substrates are repaired and reused or degraded. RECYCLE: We aim to illuminate the signals and mechanisms responsible for targeting damaged or obsolete peroxisomes for pexophagy (selective autophagy), where the organelle is degraded in the vacuole (lysosome in mammalian systems), and nutrients are recycled. As many aspects of peroxisomal function are widely conserved across organisms, these experiments will exploit the advantages of the Arabidopsis model and will likely provide insights useful for understanding the etiology of human peroxisome biogenesis disorders.
Academic Background
- BS Biological Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL
- PhD Plant & Microbial Biology Department, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
- Postdoctoral training BioSciences Department, Rice University, Houston, TX