MMI Director Prof. Bhanu P. Jena to present Keynote Lecture entitled: “The Porosome Secretory Nanomachine: Discovery to Therapy”, at the International Drug Discovery Science & Technology (IDDST) Congress in Kyoto, Japan

Abstract 

Life process is managed through secretion-mediated cellular communication. The discovery of a secretory portal—the porosome nearly 30-years ago, has resulted in a paradigm-shift in our understanding of cell secretion. We now know that secretory vesicles transiently dock and fuse at porosomes via t-/v-SNARE proteins, and swell rapidly through aquaporin-mediated water transport to secrete. The result is the release of a measured portion of intra-vesicular contents into the extracellular milieu. Porosome-mediated secretion is present in all cells. Altered porosome proteins result in a wide range of secretory defects leading to disease. The porosome-mediated principles discovered and described, has turned out to be universal, operating similarly in all animal cells. A number of human hereditary diseases are caused by mutations in some of the nearly 30 proteins composing the porosome complex. The discovery of the porosome, in addition to providing a deep understanding of cell secretion, has also contributed to the establishment of a drug development platform for the treatment of a wide range of diseases resulting from secretory disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Cystic Fibrosis and Diabetes. New and novel curative therapies developed for Alzheimer’s and Cystic Fibrosis will be discussed.