Researchers of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Science recently identified that an enzyme called Atlastin (ATL) is used to regulate the transportation of proteins within cells. This novel finding offers new insights into the pathology of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia – a rare inherited disorder with symptoms of lower limb spasticity accompanied by possible neurological deficiencies. 

ATL was known to be linked to the disease, but how it defects in ATL and disrupts normal physiology remained unclear.  Now a team led by Prof. GUO Yusong, Assistant Professor of Division of Life Science in the School of Science at HKUST, have discovered that deletion of ATL would drastically slow down the transportation of important proteins produced from within the cell to its surface, which could lead to malfunctioning of our physiology and normal bodily functions. Read More... 

Prof. GUO Yusong (front middle)’s research team – including the paper’s co-first author MA Tianji (front left), identify a novel function of an enzyme.