Research interests in Gu Laboratory focus on understanding the molecular mechanisms of redox modulation, particularly the roles of nitrosative and/or oxidative stress in cell signal transduction machinery and the impact to neurological diseases. Reactive nitrogen/oxygen species (RNS/ROS) play diverse roles in regulating research imagebiological processes ranging from development to disease. Dr. Gu and his colleagues discovered that RNS/ROS-induced nitrosative and oxidative stress alters functions of both extracellular and intracellular key molecules in neurodegenerative disorders, including matrix metalloproteinases for their aberrant proteolytic activity to neuronal cell death in stroke and retinal neurodegeneration, and parkin, a ubiquitin E3 ligase linked to misfolded protein aggregates in the sporadic form of Parkinson’s disease.