Our group is focused on a nitric oxide (NO)-mediated posttranslational modification called S-nitrosylation, whereby an NO group reacts with a critical cysteine thiol of a specific protein to regulate its function, akin to the effect of phosphorylation. Excessive generation of NO in the nervous system may constitute a fundamental pathological process in neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases. Our research is directed towards understanding the molecular mechanisms of how protein S-nitrosylation contributes to mitochondrial dysfunction, protein misfolding, and increased cell death under neurodegenerative conditions.Dr. Tomo Nakamura is currently Research Assistant Professor at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from
the University of Tsukuba in Japan. For postdoctoral fellowship training, he joined the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Lipton at the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. From 2007 to 2009, Dr. Nakamura was a Scholar of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He serves as a scientific reviewer for several scientific and medical journals. His career focuses on the contribution of oxidative/nitrosative stress to the pathogenesis of aging and neurodegenerative disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, and he has multiple publications in Science, Nature, and Cell Press on this subject.