Spring 2026 Grantee Highlight:
Richard Young

Richard Young, PhD

Professor and Member, Whitehead Institute

People with the same disease-causing mutation can experience remarkably different symptoms. Richard Young’s team will investigate whether a newly discovered process called “proteolethargy” helps explain this variation. Proteolethargy occurs when oxidative stress creates temporary chemical links between proteins, restricting their movement and slowing important cellular functions.

The researchers will identify inherited disorders in which oxidative stress may influence disease severity and develop patient-derived stem-cell models to study oxidative stress, protein mobility, and cellular function. They will test whether drugs that restore the cell’s chemical balance, including N-acetylcysteine, metformin, and omaveloxolone, can release these constraints and improve disease-relevant functions.

Preliminary studies in Rett syndrome models have already shown increased oxidative stress, reduced protein mobility, abnormal neuronal signaling, and partial improvement with N-acetylcysteine. If successful, this work will reveal a shared, reversible mechanism that worsens multiple genetic disorders and could lead to broadly applicable treatments that complement gene-specific therapies.

Learn more about the Young Lab: https://younglab.org/