< Back to previous page

Project

Unravelling structural motives of intrinsically unstructured proteins employing Raman optical activity: Understanding the basis of neurodegenerative diseases

In the aging population of the Western World, age-related neurodegenerative diseases,such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, are becoming an ever-increasing issue.Common to these diseases are build up of protein matter in the brain, leading todegeneration of brain tissue. The proteins responsible for this degeneration belong toa group of proteins usually found on the periphery of structural biology; theintrinsically unstructured proteins (IUPs). Lacking the structural elementstraditionally associated with function, IUPs were historically ignored by structuralbiologists as "non-functioning". In the modern age of proteomics, this group ofproteins has indeed proven to be functional, but in connection with disease, it is thesudden malfunction of IUPs that is in focus. As this group of proteins lack classicallydefined structural elements and are highly dynamic, the usual structuralcharacterisation tools fall short in the analysis of IUPs, and even our fundamentalunderstanding of "structure" fails. It is therefore imperative to develop new tools, andto generate a new understanding of protein structure itself when analysing IUPs. Thisproject aims to do exactly that: By combining state-of-the-art chiropticalspectroscopic techniques with cutting-edge computational chemistry, the world of theIUPs will be analysed in detail, redefining what constitutes protein structure andultimately aiding the understanding of what turns a normal, functioning IUP into apathogenic entity.
Date:1 Oct 2013 →  30 Sep 2017
Keywords:NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES, RAMAN OPTICAL ACTIVITY, STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY, COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY
Disciplines:Medicinal and biomolecular chemistry, Theoretical and computational chemistry, Other chemical sciences, Molecular and cell biology, Plant biology, Systems biology, Biophysics