My primary focus during my pre- and post-doctoral training has been the field of molecular and cellular biology with an emphasis in the characterization of the molecular mechanisms involved in the modulation of the turnover of organelles/proteins and the understanding of the contribution of their malfunctioning on cellular damage and proteotoxicity. I have devoted more than a decade to acquiring a broad range of methodological skills in the fields of membrane traffic and protein degradation and gaining a strong background in experimental systems and procedures to analyze endocytic and autophagic pathways.

As a Junior Faculty in the Developmental and Molecular Biology Department at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, I carried out studies exploring the role of autophagy in aging and aging-related diseases. I recently accepted an offer as a Scientist-III in Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA), the largest research institution in the world devoted to investigating the relationship between nutrition and aging. I intend analyzing how autophagy modulates the functionality of intercellular gap junction through the degradation of gap junction channels in different tissues under physiological or pathological conditions in the context of aging and nutritional manipulation. 

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2.     Bejarano & Cuervo. Proc Am Thorac Soc. 2010 Feb;7 (1):29-39 , 2010.

3.     Bejarano et al. Molecular Biology Cell   23: 2156-69, 2012.

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6.     Zaaruret al. Mol Cell Biol, 34:1336-1348, 2014.

7.    Bejarano et al.  Nat Cell Bio. 5:401-414 2014401-414 2014 

8.     Bejarano & Rodriguez-Navarro. Amino Acids. 2014 Aug 22.

9.     Klyonskyet al. Autophagy. 2016 Jan 2;12 (1):1-222.