Decisions between the retention and exit of aberrant proteins from the Endoplasmic Reticulum (ERAD): links between ER associated degradation and human disease

Prof. Jeffrey Brodsky holds the Avinoff Chair in Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.  He was born in Chicago, Illinois, and attended the University of Illinois where he received his bachelor's degree in Biochemistry, graduating magna cum laude with honors in 1985.  He then entered the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology graduate program at Harvard University, receiving his PhD in 1990, and worked with Prof. Guido Guidotti on regulation of the sodium pump in the brain.  Next, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley for post-doctoral research as an American Cancer Society Research Fellow and studied with Prof. Randy Schekman (Nobel Laureate, 2013), who pioneered the use of the yeast model to define how proteins are trafficked within the cell.  Prof. Brodsky joined the Faculty in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh in 1994 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2000.  In 2006 he was promoted to Full Professor and was awarded the Avinoff Chair.  Prof. Brodsky’s work now focuses on understanding how misfolded proteins are recognized and destroyed in the cell, and how defects in protein architecture can be corrected using drugs and genetic approaches.  Based on his work, he received the University of Pittsburgh Chancellor's Outstanding Research Award in the Junior Division in 1998 and the Chancellor’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2008, as well as the Pitt Innovator Award in 2007.  In 2013 he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).  Prof. Brodsky has served on the editorial boards of three journals, has published more than 190 scientific papers, holds 2 patents, and acts as a scientific consultant for several disease foundations and biotech companies.