Lauren Albrecht, Ph.D.
Education:
BS: Chemistry from the University of California San Diego (UCSD).
PhD: Cell Biology from Northwestern University
Postdoctoral Research: Developmental Biology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
The Albrecht Lab seeks to understand how cells sense environmental changes and adapt to meet the metabolic demands of an entire tissue during development, homeostasis, and renewal. We are particularly interested in discovering fundamental principles of protein homeostasis (or proteostasis) and how the loss of the proteostasis contributes to aging and disease. Our work has delineated key regulatory functions of protein methylation and has made novel contributions to fields studying signal transduction, organelle communication, cellular metabolism, and tissue remodeling in cancer, neurodegeneration, and cardiomyopathy. Our ongoing work leverages state-of-the-art high-resolution live imaging with novel chemical biology approaches to understand mechanisms of disease and to uncover new therapies using metabolic or pharmaceutical-based interventions, or even through diet.
Research:
Structural Biology of GPCR proteins (Opella Lab at UCSD)
Cellular Biology of Cytoskeleton and Cell Contacts in Skin and Heart (Green Lab, Northwestern)
Molecular Metabolism of Growth in Development and Cancer (De Robertis Lab, UCLA).
Publications:
Circulating and bone levels of sclerostin in CKD and dialysis patients. (2022) LV Albrecht, R Pereira, I Salusky, and M Laster– Journal of Bone and Mineral Research Vol. 37.
Metabolism and Endocrine Disorders: What Wnt Wrong? CN Franco, MM Noe, LV Albrecht – Frontiers in Endocrinology, 2022
Cell biology of canonical Wnt signaling LV Albrecht, N Tejeda-Muñoz, EM De Robertis – Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol., 2021
Characterization of Primary Cilia in Osteoblasts Isolated From Patients With ADPKD and CKD RC Pereira, BY Gitomer, M Chonchol, PC Harris… – JBMR plus, 2021
Protocol for probing regulated lysosomal activity and function in living cells LV Albrecht, N Tejeda-Muñoz, EM De Robertis – STAR protocols, 2020
Wnt-inducible Lrp6-APEX2 interacting proteins identify ESCRT machinery and Trk-fused gene as components of the Wnt signaling pathway G Colozza, Y Jami-Alahmadi, A Dsouza… – Scientific reports, 2020
GSK3 inhibits macropinocytosis and lysosomal activity through the Wnt destruction complex machinery LV Albrecht, N Tejeda-Muñoz, MH Bui, AC Cicchetto… – Cell reports, 2020
Wnt canonical pathway activates macropinocytosis and lysosomal degradation of extracellular proteins N Tejeda-Muñoz, LV Albrecht, MH Bui, EM De Robertis – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019
Canonical Wnt is inhibited by targeting one-carbon metabolism through methotrexate or methionine deprivation LV Albrecht, MH Bui, EM De Robertis – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2019
Arginine methylation is required for canonical Wnt signaling and endolysosomal trafficking LV Albrecht, D Ploper, N Tejeda-Muñoz… – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018
SVEP 1 plays a crucial role in epidermal differentiation L Samuelov, Q Li, R Bochner, NA Najor, LV Albrecht… – Experimental dermatology, 2017
Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor neddylation is regulated by a desmosomal-COP9 (Constitutive Photomorphogenesis 9) signalosome complex NA Najor, GN Fitz, JL Koetsier, LM Godsel, LV Albrecht… – Elife, 2017
GSK3-and PRMT-1–dependent modifications of desmoplakin control desmoplakin–cytoskeleton dynamics LV Albrecht, L Zhang, J Shabanowitz, E Purevjav… – Journal of Cell Biology, 2015
Interactions of interleukin-8 with the human chemokine receptor CXCR1 in phospholipid bilayers by NMR spectroscopy SH Park, F Casagrande, L Cho, L Albrecht, SJ Opella – Journal of molecular biology, 2011
Local and global dynamics of the G protein-coupled receptor CXCR1 SH Park, F Casagrande, BB Das, L Albrecht, M Chu… – Biochemistry, 2011