May 2023 Science Seminar: Dr. Gino Cortopassi

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Event Date

Location
Zoom

Quaternary Ammonium Compounds, we once thought were benign, inhibit mitochondria and cause lung toxicity in mice.

Dr. Gino Cortopassi

Dr. Gino Cortopassi has spent his scientific career studying mitochondrial pathophysiology. He received his BS in Biology in 1981 from Stanford, working with Philip Hanawalt on DNA repair. He received his PhD from UC Berkeley in 1988 with support of Allan Wilson and Bruce Ames, leaders in mitochondrial evolution and evaluation of toxicants, respectively. As a postdoc with Norman Arnheim and Caleb 'Tuck' Finch he demonstrated somatic mitochondrial degeneration with aging in 1990 at University of Southern California (USC). He continued as faculty at USC School of Pharmacy 1991-1995, when he transitioned to the University of California at Davis where he is currently a professor in the Department of Molecular Bioscences. From 1995 to now, he has studied the involvement of mitochondria and metabolism in multiple contexts. In 2019, Dr. Cortopassi received EHSC Pilot award for the project titled "Determination of human tissue QACs concentration and their partitioning into mitochondria."