OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
The mitochondrial membrane potential powers both ATP production and mitochondrial Ca2+ transient of mitochondrial Ca2+ permeation into the mitochondria via the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter MCU followed by Ca2+ efflux by by the 3Na+/Ca2+ exchanger, NCLX that was discovered by our group . In the first part of my talk I will describe a new strategy for controlling the mitochondrial membrane potential. We are using optogenetic channels for a light dependent control in mitochondrial l membrane potential . In the first part of my talk I will described the challenges of targeting these “optometabolic channels to mitochondria and of using them to study metabolic processes, Ca2+ signaling and physiological activities. The second part on my talk will focus on our studies of the mitochondrial NCLX. . I will first describe how by combining molecular control of NCLX activity with cytosolic or mitochondrial Ca2+ imaging we study the role of NCLX in cell models related to diabetes Parkinson (PD) or pain sensation. I will then describe the mode of NCLX regulation by PKA phosphorylation. Finally I will present new data linking phosphorylation of NCLX to allosteric regulation of NCLX by mitochondrial membrane potential and describe the physiological implication of this regulation on thermogeneration in brown fat.
