Dr. Heather Mentrup is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Dr. Kevin Mollen’s lab in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. She received her PhD in Biology from the University of South Carolina, under the mentorship of Dr. Lydia Matesic, where she studied the impact HECT E3 ligases have on the development and cellular differentiation of the gut. Dr. Mentrup has continued to expand on her expertise in the gut at the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on mitochondrial health in inflammatory bowel disease. Her current interest centers around mechanisms of mitophagy in the gut and the effect dysregulation has on inflammatory bowel disease. To address this question, multiple transgenic mouse models, along with intestinal organoid cultures systems, are utilized to study mitophagy in the intestinal epithelium.

For her talk, she will focus on two major players in mitophagy, PARKIN and NIX, and how they play a novel and unexpected role influencing mitophagy in the gut epithelium.