A Talk on Glutathione Metabolism Revisited by Professor Anand K Bachhawat

Abstract
Glutathione is the most abundant thiol molecule in almost all eukaryotic cells. It plays important functions in the cell, particularly in redox, detoxification and mitochondrial function. Thus maintaining the levels of glutathione, as well as the equilibrium between the reduced and oxidised forms in the cell is very crucial for health and disease. Glutathione homeostasis can be maintained by its biosynthesis, transport, efflux and its degradation. Discovered in 1888, between 1920 to the 1970s, much of the metabolism of glutathione were unravelled by many of the stalwarts of biochemistry of those years. Thus, when Professor Bachhawat accidentally began work on glutathione in the late 1990s, it was thought that the biochemistry of glutathione, and its metabolism was completely known. They soon discovered that this was not the case. Some of the reported pathways were wrong, while in other cases they were incomplete, and in some cases there were enzymes waiting to be discovered.
In this overview, Professor Bachhawat will briefly discuss some of the discoveries that they have made that helped unravel many unknown aspects of glutathione and it’s metabolism. This eventually led them to propose a new cycle of glutathione metabolism, “The glutathione cycle” which we propose should replace the previously known “γ-glutamyl cycle”. Some of the new enzymes could be therapeutically important, and they will discuss the challenges and attempts in seeking new inhibitors to these enzymes and pathways.

About the Speaker:
Professor Anand Kumar Bachhawat currently holds the position of Professor of Biology at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) in Mohali, where he has been since 2010. He has undertaken various roles throughout his career. He served as the Dean of Faculty at IISER Mohali in 2022 and from 2011 to 2014, and also held the position of Head of the Department of Biology from 2015 to 2018. Additionally, he served as the Dean of Research and Development from 2014 to 2016. Prior to his tenure at IISER, he worked as a Scientist at the Institute of Microbial Technology in Chandigarh. He pursued post-doctoral research at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA, and at the MGH Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School. He holds a BSc in Chemistry from the University of Madras, an MSc in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and a PhD in Biochemistry from Bose Institute, University of Calcutta. His research interests primarily revolve around understanding glutathione and sulfur homeostasis in yeasts and higher eukaryotes, glutathione degradation and transport, redox control in yeast, cysteine and cystine metabolism, cystinosis, regulation of calcium channels through oxidative stress and glutathionylation, synthetic biology, metabolic engineering of isoprenoid biosynthetic pathways, and regulatory interactions in one carbon metabolism and the folate-sulfur pathway.