The 2014 SOT Annual Meeting MRC Lecture, Guiding Signals through Anchored Enzyme Complexes: Implications for Disease, will be presented by John D. Scott on Wednesday, March 26 from 8:00 am–9:00 am in the Phoenix Convention Center. Intracellular signal transduction events are precisely regulated in space and time. Dr. Scott notes: “This is achieved in part by A-Kinase Anchoring Proteins (AKAPs) that tether signaling enzymes such as protein kinases and phosphatases in proximity to selected substrates. AKAP targeting provides an efficient means to reversibly control the phosphorylation status of key substrates and contributes to the dynamic regulation of sophisticated cellular events.
Using a variety of genetic, electrophysiological, and live-cell imaging techniques, we show that AKAPs, which enhance the precision of signaling events, are up-regulated under certain pathophysiological states. This leads to aberrant regulation of certain physiological processes and disorders such as diabetes and heart disease.” In this lecture, Dr. Scott will present some recent data on the role of anchored signaling complexes that modulate various extra-pancreatic complications of diabetes, including hypertension and cataract formation.
Dr. Scott is the Edwin G. Krebs-Hilma Speights Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, Seattle. He received his BSc (Hons) degree in biochemistry from Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and his PhD degree from the University of Aberdeen. He did postdoctoral research on protein kinase inhibitors in the laboratory of Edwin Krebs at UW and then joined the faculty of the University of California, Irvine. He continued his research at the Vollum Institute at the Oregon Health & Sciences University, Portland, Oregon, until 2008, when he moved to the UW. Dr. Scott is a fellow of the Royal Society, London, and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.