SOD1, ALS and ICOSA
All results obtained by ICOSA are shared openly in a manner similar to the model adopted in several worldwide structural genomics consortia.
There have been nine meetings of ICOSA, the most recent was held at Worcester, MA (May, 2010). Other meetings have been held in Los Angeles, CA (April, 2001), San Antonio, Texas (Nov. 2002), Cheshire U.K. (July, 2003), Worcester, MA (Sept., 2004), Lexington, Kentucky (Sept. 2005), Long Beach, CA (Oct. 2006) and Brookhaven Laboratory (October 2007) and Umea, Sweden (Sept. 2009).
The 9th ICOSA was hosted by Larry Hayward (left, front row)
The 7th ICOSA was hosted at Brookhaven National Laboratory by Diane Cabelli (6th from left, front row)
The 8th ICOSA was hosted at Umea, Sweden by Stefan Marklund (2nd right, front row)
Click here to see ICOSA-related publications
It is not clear how over 100 different mutations in the SOD1 gene can cause familial Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (FALS; aka Motor Neuron Disease). The lack of structural data for the FALS SOD1 mutants is a major handicap in understanding their pathogenic properties. It was to address this gap in our knowledge that the International Consortium on SOD and ALS (ICOSA) was created following discussions between Samar Hasnain (Daresbury Laboratory, UK) and Joan Valentine (UCLA) at the Gordon Conference on Oxidative Damage in Los Angeles in 2001. ICOSA brings together the following research groups and laboratories:
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Diane Cabelli
Brookhaven National Laboratory, USA.
http://www.bnl.gov/chemistry/bio/CabelliDiane.asp
Jeff Cohlberg
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California State University, USA.
http://www.csulb.edu/~cohlberg/cohlberg.htm
P. John Hart
Department of Biochemistry and the Center for Biomolecular Structure Analysis, The University of Texas Health Science Center, USA.
http://xray.uthscsa.edu/
S. Samar Hasnain
Molecular Biophysics Group, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, UK.
http://www.biophysics.liv.ac.uk/
Lawrence J. Hayward
Department of Neurology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, USA.
http://www.umassmed.edu/neuroscience/faculty/hayward.cfm
Stefan Marklund
Department of Medical Biosciences, Clinical Chemistry,Umeå Sweden.
http://medbio.webb120.it-norr.com/default.asp?id=1050
Joan S. Valentine
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, USA.
http://www.chem.ucla.edu/dept/Faculty/valentine.html/
Haining Zhu
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, University of Kentucky, USA.
http://www.mc.uky.edu/biochemistry/dept_personnel/faculty/zhu.asp |
