Sanders-Brown Faculty

Chongsuk Ryou, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Departmental Affiliation(s):

Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging

In the lab:

William Titlow (Research Analyst)

Charles Mays (Graduate Student)

Younghwan Kim (Visiting Scientist)

Research Focus:

Prion and prion diseases. Prions are unconventional pathogens composed of protein termed PrPSc that is devoid of nucleic acids. This pathogen causes a variety of neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals. Although recent experimental data advance our knowledge about the nature of the agent, a majority of information about the disease such as etiology and transmission mode has not been clearly revealed. My long term research goal is to understand the molecular mechanism of prion pathogenesis. This includes the understanding of molecular events during the conversion of PrPC (cellular PrP with normal physiological function) to PrPSc (disease-associated rogue PrP). During prion pathogenesis, PrPC undergoes a conformational alteration and is switched to PrPSc by the assistance of an auxiliary factor termed protein X. Thus, my research has been focused on the identification of protein X and verification of its role during prion pathogenesis. Currently, I am investigating a candidate molecule (kringle domains of plasminogen and its related proteins) that I identified in my previous studies by testing whether it functionally assists the molecular conversion of prion proteins. Other research projects are investigations on 1) a physiological role of the interaction between PrP and its interacting proteins, 2) gene and/or protein expression changes associated with prion infection and disease progression, and 3) prion diagnostics and therapeutics

Ryou Lab Website

Recent Publications:

Mays CE, Kang H-E, Shim SH, Bang J-E, Woo H-J, Cho Y-H, Kim J-B, Ryou C (2007) CRBL cells: Establishment, characterization and susceptibility to prion infection. Submitted.

Ryou C (2007) Prions and prion diseases: Fundamentals and mechanistic details. Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology 17(7): 1059-1070.

Yung L, Huang Y, Lessard P, Legname G, Lin ET, Baldwin MA, Prusiner SB, Ryou C, and Guglielmo BJ (2004) Pharmacokinetics of quinacrine in the treatment of prion disease. BMC Infectious Diseases 4:53

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Ryou C, Legname G, Peretz D, Craig JC, Baldwin MA, and Prusiner SB (2003) Differential inhibition of prion propagation by enantiomers of quinacrine. Laboratory Investigation, 83(6): 837-843.

Ryou C, Prusiner SB, and Legname G (2003) Cooperative binding of dominant negative prion proteins to kringle domains. Journal of Molecular Biology, 329(2): 323-333.

Bosque PJ, Ryou C, Telling G, Peretz D, Legname G, DeArmond S, and Prusiner SB (2002) Prions in skeletal muscle. Proceedings of National Academy of Science, U. S. A., 99(6): 3812-3817.