Meet Dr. Thomas Braulke, the other co-recipient of this year's $90,000 research grant from the Yash Gandhi Foundation! 🔬🧪🧫💜
Thomas Braulke studied Biochemistry, obtained his PhD in Neurochemistry and worked as postdoctoral fellow and group leader on biogenesis of lysosomes and lysosomal storage disorders with Kurt von Figura at the University of Goettingen, Germany. In 1999 he became a professor of Biochemistry at the University Medical Center in Hamburg, established a new Department for Biochemistry at the Children’s Hospital and joined the Department of Osteology & Biomechanics in Hamburg in 2019. His group has identified the gene encoding the phosphotransferase catalysing the key step in the formation of the mannose 6-phosphate targeting signal for lysosomal enzymes. Mutations in this gene cause mucolipidosis II (MLII; I-cell disease) and MLIIIalpha/beta. In the group of Dr. Braulke a mouse model for MLII was generated which phenocopies the key features of the human disease and whose analysis provided new insights into pathogenic alteration of the brain, skeleton, kidney and the immune system. Furthermore, his group identified the protease that cleaves and activates the precursor protein of the phosphotransferase and very recently a regulatory protein, LYSET, that stabilizes the phosphotransferase. The loss of LYSET leads to a novel MLII-like disease. At present he is the speaker of the German/Dutch collaborative research group on ‘Mechanisms of Lysosomal Homeostasis’ (FOR2625).
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