Rudenko Lab
Gabrielle Rudenko
Rudenko is a structural biologist, who uses a variety of tools to determine the precise three-dimensional shape and function of biological molecules. Solving the structure of complex bio-molecules is a key to understanding the disease process and may play a role in designing drugs.
Her latest work is focused on a class of receptor molecules that play a key role in the brain's ability adapt to physical and chemical insults.
While working in the lab of Nobel Prize winner Johann Deisenhofer at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Rudenko was the lead author on a study that describes the LDL cholesterol receptor molecule. The LDL receptor stands on the outer membrane of a cell, and binds passing "bad cholesterol" and draws it inside a cell, where it may be broken up to make hormones, cell membranes, vitamin D and other essential molecular ingredients. One observer called her six-year effort to understand the receptor "a heroic effort."
Knowing how the receptor functions can help us to understand some forms of heart disease and abnormally high cholesterol levels. It may also lead to drugs to fight high cholesterol and hardening of the arteries.
Rudenko was born in San Francisco, and holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and The Netherlands.
Gabrielle Rudenko
