Titles
- Associate Professor
Linked information
Departments
Roles
BMHA Training Faculty, HALO Faculty
Dr. Suzanne Hoppins joined the UW Biochemistry faculty as an assistant professor in 2013 and was promoted to Associate professor in 2020. She has studied different aspects of mitochondrial biology for her entire career. As an undergraduate researcher and then a graduate student she studied mitochondrial protein import, a complex system of translocation and sorting machineries that move newly translated proteins from the cytosol to their functional compartment. As a postdoctoral fellow, she studied mitochondrial structure. Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that constantly change shape due to the opposing activities of fusion and fission, and Dr. Hoppins studied mitochondrial fusion in S. cerevisiae and vertebrate cells. Her lab at the University of Washington continues to study mitochondrial fusion in vertebrate cells, focused on elucidating the mechanism and regulation of mitochondrial outer membrane fusion. Mitochondrial fusion is beneficial as highly connected mitochondrial networks are more efficient and protected from damage. Mitochondrial dysfunction has been reported in many age-related diseases; as such, therapeutics that augment mitochondrial fusion could alleviate dysfunction in age-related diseases.
