Joy J. Goto earned a B.S. in Chemistry from UC Davis and Ph.D. in Chemistry from UCLA.
She was the recipient of the UCLA Alumni Association distinguished dissertation year
award and a Collegium of University Teaching fellowship. Dr. Goto was a John Douglas
French Alzheimer s Foundation research fellow in the Genetics and Aging Research Unit
at the Center for Aging, Genetics, and Neurodegeneration at Harvard Medical School
and a Beckman Senior Research Fellow in the Neurosciences Division at the City of
Hope Beckman Research Institute in Duarte, Calfiornia. She was a visiting Assistant
Professor of chemistry in the Joint Science Department of Scripps, Claremont McKenna
and Pitzer Colleges prior to joining Fresno State in 2007. Dr. Goto uses her training
in bioinorganic chemistry and neuroscience to contribute to the understanding of neurodegenerative
diseases, oxidative stress and metal homeostasis.
Research
The Goto laboratory is focused on three majors projects using fruit flies or human
neuronal cultures to investigate neurochemical functions and neuromuscular electrophysiology
and behavior as a model for neurodegenerative disease and oxidative stress. Project
1: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – Parkinsonism dementia complex (ALS-PDC) is one
such disease her lab investigates, where a non-natural amino acid produced by cyanobacteria
is implicated in the progression of ALS-PDC. Proteomic, electrophysiological and behavioral
experiments are conducted to investigate this fruit fly model of the disease. Project
2: The interaction of specific proteins involved in the abnormal proteolytic processing
in Alzheimer’s Disease is investigated using coimmunoprecipitation and RIMI facility
microscopy. Project 3: Oxidative stress and transition metal ion homeostasis is investigated
in fruit flies as a model of aging.
Teaching and Mentoring
Dr. Goto teaches courses from general chemistry laboratory (CHEM 1BL) to upper-division
biochemistry (CHEM 150, 155A, 155B), and graduate level biochemistry with CHEM/BIOL
242 (Techniques in Protein Purification and Analysis). She has taught a non-majors
chemistry course relating the relationship between chemistry and society (CHEM 10
and CHEM 10H - honors). She taught CSM10 (The Scientific Method), to first-year College
of Science & Mathematics majors in biology, chemistry, computer science, earth & environmental
sciences, mathematics, and physics, focusing on the theme of water and sustainability.
Her interdisciplinary background reflects itself in her research and teaching. The
undergraduate and graduate students working on research projects in Dr. Goto’s laboratory
have been from diverse academic fields including chemistry, biology, biotechnology,
public health and psychology. Dr. Goto is currently the faculty advisor for the American
Medical Student Association (AMSA). She has served as the pre-pharmacy advisor for
the Chemistry Department.
Her mentoring has also included serving as the faculty co-coordinator of the Fresno
State LSAMP program. She is a faculty representative for the CSU AAPI Initiative and
faculty advisor to student club, Magkaisa.
Neurobiochemistry; Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism of environmental neurotoxin exposure and neuronal degeneration;
Oxidative stress and metal ion homeostasis; Mammalian neuronal cultures for protein
studies of Alzheimer's Disease
