Description:

This seminar has been cancelled. The talk will be rescheduled for a later time.

Abstract

Actinopathies are genetically and clinically heterogeneous disorders mainly characterized by generalized muscle weakness. The understanding of this group of disorders has advanced in recent years through the identification of the causative mutations in the gene encoding one of the major proteins of the basic contractile unit of skeletal muscle, i.e., actin. In the present seminar, Julien Ochala will present (i) how these gene mutations lead to generalized muscle dysfunction and (ii) the advances regarding potential therapies.

Speaker

Julien Ochala received his PhD (in Muscle Physiology) in 2007 from the University of Burgundy, France. Following post-doctoral research (2007-2010) at the Department of Neuroscience of Uppsala University, Sweden, he became Assistant Professor at the same University allowing him to establish his own research group. In 2013, he was appointed Associate Professor at King's College London. His research work focuses on (i) the understanding of the mechanisms causing genetic muscle diseases; and (ii) providing sufficient knowledge to identify drug targets and design novel therapeutic interventions. For that, his laboratory uses human, rodent and drosophila muscle tissue, and techniques ranging from single molecule biophysics to muscle cell physiology.