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Dr. PETER HOLLENBECK

Professor
Department of Biological Sciences 25%
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs 75%

765-496-3378
LILY 2-237
phollenb@purdue.edu

Associated website(s):

Motility Group , Hollenbeck Lab Web Site , Publications

Dr. PETER  HOLLENBECK

PROFESSIONAL FACULTY RESEARCH

(Neurobiology) Intracellular organelle transport in neurons.


BIO

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 worked for 25 years to determine how nerve cells accomplish and coordinate this long-range movement, and how the process goes awry in neurodegenerative diseases. We were particularly interested in how nerve cells transport and 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 removed them from the nervous system of chick or Drosophila embryos and induced them to grow in a culture dish, where we could study their responses to specific molecular events using computer-enhanced light microscopy. We also measured events in the nerve axons directly in live Drosophila larvae. Using these methods, we 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. I allowed my final NIH grant to expire and closed my lab at the end of 2018 as my duties in the Provost office had become full-time.

Outside of my laboratory, I serve the Tourette Association of America as a scientific advisor and public speaker.

EDUCATION

Ph.D., California, Berkeley, 1984

Current lab personnel:

None, lab closed

AWARDS

Charles B. Murphy Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching, Purdue University, 2013

Biological Sciences Graduate Student Mentoring Award, 2011-12

Honorable Mention, Top Teacher in College of Science Awards, 2011

Purdue Seeds of Success Award for winning research grants in excess of $1,000,000; 2010

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-The Response of Mitochondria to Legionella Infection of Macrophages R21 AI117205-01 (now expired)

NIH-Control of Neuronal Organelle Transport R01 NS02073-25, 1990-2015 (now expired)

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Grant Review and Study Sections

·         NIMH, NINDS, NSF

·         United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation

·         American Cancer Society

·         Tourette Syndrome Association

Advisory Boards

·         Tourette Syndrome Association Scientific Advisory Board, 1997-2012; Vice-Chair, 2004-11

·         NIMH/NIH Council (2005-2008)

Recent Research Presentations

  • The axonal transport and turnover of mitochondria in Drosophila models of Parkinson’s disease. Flies on the Beach Symposium in Drosophila neurobiology, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter FL, 05/12/17
  • The axonal transport and turnover of mitochondria in Drosophila models of Parkinson’s disease. Distinguished Lecture in the College of Pharmacy, Ohio State University, Columbus OH, 01/18/17
  • The transport, turnover and life cycle of mitochondria in the nervous system, in sickness and health. Presentation: Molecular Biology Training Grant Symposium, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 05/18/16
  • The transport, turnover and life cycle of mitochondria in the nervous system, in sickness and health. Seminar in the Graduate Program in Molecular and Cellular Biology, Brown University, Providence, RI, 04/13/16

·         Axonal transport of mitochondria in Parkinson’s disease Drosophila models. 45th Annual Society for Neuroscience meetings, Minisymposium on “Axonal Transport Defects in Neurodegenerative Diseases II: Mechanisms and Molecular Components,” Chicago IL, 10/17/15

·         The transport, turnover and life cycle of mitochondria in the nervous system, in sickness and health. Howard Hughes Medical Institute conference on Neuronal Trafficking in Physiology and Disease, Janelia Farm, Ashburn, VA, 06/01/15

·         Neuronal mitochondria: the life cycle of a very complex organelle in a very large cell.  Cell Press-Fondation Ipsen Symposium on Biology of Size, La Jolla, CA, 10/29/14

·         Mitochondrial Transport, Metabolism and ROS Production in Disease Models.   Dept of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Illinois School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, 06/17/14

·         Mitochondrial Transport, Metabolism and ROS Production in Disease Models.  Dept of Biological Sciences and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 04/10/14

·         Mitochondrial Transport, Metabolism and ROS Production in Disease Models. Dept of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 03/17/14

·         How are Mitochondrial transport and function regulated in neurons?  Dept of Biology, Univ of California, Santa Cruz, CA, 02/14/11.

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