Dewson Lab

Great to welcome prospective Honours, Masters and PhD students to WEHI’s 2025 Student Open Day.

Attendees heard from staff and students, explored our laboratories, discussed research projects with supervisors and connected with peers. 🧪🔬

💻 More info: www.wehi.edu.au/education/st...

📸 L–R: Professor David Komander, Dr Nicholas Kirk, Dr Sylvie Callegari and Dr Alisa Glukhova. 

Researchers from WEHI’s Parkinson Disease Research Centre have won the 2025 UNSW Eureka Prize for Scientific Research. The team has been honoured for their research unravelling how PINK1, a key protein linked to early-onset Parkinson’s disease, works.

🔗 www.wehi.edu.au/news/eureka-...

Join us for Prof. Michele Callisaya's talk on how ParkinsonsNet is going to improve access to high quality Parkinsons care in Australia. teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-joi...

congrats Kaiming and the team. Fantastic work with some very interesting applications!

Final version of our paper on targeting BAK / BAX to modulate apoptosis is out✌️! Can't wait to see where these tool compounds can be used💊. Honour to work in this team with screening scientists, chemists, biologists & more @dcshuang.bsky.social @dewsonlab.bsky.social @wehi-research.bsky.social

Thrilled to share the structure of dimerised human PINK1 docked to an endogenous translocase array on the mitochondrial surface, composed of two TOM complexes, bridged by a VDAC2 dimer! Published today in Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

@wehi-research.bsky.social @komanderlab.bsky.social

Scientists solve decades-long Parkinson’s mystery WEHI researchers have made a huge leap forward in the fight against Parkinson’s disease, solving a decades-long mystery that paves the way for development of new drugs to treat the condition.

World-first: researchers have discovered what protein #PINK1 looks like in humans and how it is activated, solving a decades-long mystery in the fight against #Parkinsonsdisease. The team hope to use the knowledge to find a drug to stop #Parkinsons.

www.wehi.edu.au/news/scienti...

Differential regulation of BAX and BAK apoptotic activity revealed by small molecules Opposing regulation of BAX and BAK by VDAC2 dictates their role as executioners of apoptosis and their therapeutic targeting.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Our new paper out now by Kaiming Li using a tool compound that highlights the coordination of BAX and BAK apoptotic activity through interaction with VDAC2 that may be targeted therapeutically.

TIM50 core of TIM23 complex in the inner membrane. N term of PINK1 traps tom40 and tim23 in a supercomplex between membranes across the intermembrane space. Trapped supercomplex and express pink1-flag. Mito isolation, detergent exchange, sec and cryoEM. HSPs and Vdacs in the complex too. 6 pore complexes in all particles. 3.1 Å Pink1. N term inside the barrels of tom 40. Vdac 2 dimer is centre and 2 tom 40 complexes. First structure of human VDAC2! TOM5 connecting VDAC2 to Tom40.

Session 11: Sylvie Callegari -Structure of human PINK1 stabilised at a novel mitochondrial translocase. Sense mito damage, stabilised on TOM complex, activate ub kinase activity, ub phosphorylation. 100 kDa band disulphide to PINK1 Cys40 with peroxide treatment? #LorneProteins2025