On April 11th, we welcomed Jörg Höhfeld from Universität Bonn. During his talk, entitled “Maintaining the Proteome Under Mechanical Stress – From Mechanism to Pathology”, Jörg focused on how mechanical stress affects protein function and integrity. Cells are constantly subjected to mechanical stress which, depending on the intensity, can lead to protein unfolding and subsequent impairment of cell function. The chaperone machinery is known to be involved in maintaining protein homeostasis, promoting both protein folding and degradation. Co-chaperone BAG3, localized in muscle cells, recognizes force-unfolded cytoskeletal proteins and mediates their disposal through chaperone assisted selective autophagy (CASA). This role is absolutely essential, as BAG3 deficiency causes severe muscle weakness (Bag3 myofibrillar myopathy – MFM6) in children and contributes to heart failure and other neuromuscular diseases. Advancing the knowledge about mechanical stress protection systems will be instrumental for the diagnosis of various diseases and may pave the way for therapeutic interventions.

Thank you, Jörg, for sharing your time and expertise with us!