Professor Glickman hopes to gain insight into the cellular system that degrades proteins in a controlled manner. This system ensures that superfluous or defective proteins are marked with a molecular tag, the protein ubiquitin, and are disposed of in the cellular shredding machine, the proteasome. The ubiquitin-proteasome system is found in all eukaryotic cells and is – as its name indicates – ubiquitous. It is one of the organism’s most complex cellular systems and protects the body against serious diseases. For example, defective proteins that elude this system trigger serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, cystic fibrosis or diabetes. Our lab is interested in Proteasome structure and function, Mechanistic aspects of protein degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system and Charting the cellular ubiquitin-linkage profile using Mass spectrometry and proteomics. Towards this goal we are also analyzing the importance of proteolysis in homeostasis and regulation of the proteome and the specific recognition of ubiquitin and ubiquitin-like proteins. A separate yet related project looks at the biology of mitochondria membrane fusion and fission. More specifically, how does ubiquitination and proteasome-dependent-degradation participate in mitochondria function and dynamics.