Dr. Heather Durham

Biography

Dr. Heather Durham seeks to understand mechanisms responsible for motor neuron diseases and identify therapies that assist vulnerable cells in defending against genetic mutations responsible for familial forms of motor neuron diseases. Her research identifies and facilitates the establishment of cell culture and animal models to study in the laboratory. Dr. Durham's focus is primarily on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), where she examines the increased propensity of proteins to misfold, which can cause them to stick together, associate with inappropriate partners, and form insoluble aggregates within cells. She studies the abnormalities that occur in familial ALS due to genetic mutations and the damage inflicted upon the cellular environment in sporadic ALS. To understand why these misfolded proteins accumulate and upset the physiology of vulnerable cells, Dr. Durham has created primary culture models expressing mutant genes linked to inherited forms of the disease using mouse spinal cord cultures. Her lab has identified changes in chromatin remodeling across multiple forms of ALS, particularly in sporadic disease. Her current work includes testing intervention approaches such as histone deacetylase inhibitors and heat shock protein inducers that act as molecular chaperones to manage misfolded proteins, as well as employing advanced imaging methods to monitor disease progression. Findings from culture models are validated using complementary transgenic mouse models.

Research Interests