The goal of my program is to investigate the nature of chronic stress as it occurs in numerous diseases and aging. Our approach takes advantage of the way nature has evolved to control such stresses, and that is by a unique usage of the chaperome, referred to here as the chronic stress chaperome (CSC). The CSC is epigenetically and thermodynamically distinct from the housekeeping chaperome, and my lab has pioneered an approach to take advantage of such feature. By using innovative methods, we develop small molecule chemical tool sets specifically targeted to the CSC; these act as “sensors” of the CSC and, in turn, of the chronic stress-associated proteome. By the use of these unique tool sets we aim to understand, diagnose, and treat cellular processes associated with chronic stress.
