Projects
Win-win protein: reconciling fish protein generation and water quality management. Ghent University
Garra and tambaqui are endemic fish to Ethiopia and the Amazon. We evaluated the performance, metabolic and functional effects of garra meal as feed on broiler chickens. We evaluated the effect of fish meat preservation methods on nutritive value of tambaqui fish and investigated the compatibility of beet pulp as nutrient on functional and metabolic effects of cultured tambaqui fish.
Win-win protein: reconciling fish protein generation and water quality management KU Leuven
In the proposed project we aim to achive a win-win situation combining increased food security and increased water quality in the reservoirs. To achieve this we will investigate how we can harvest locally available GARRA fish biomass from reservoirs to prepare GARRA-based chicken feed that can be used to locally breed chicken for consumption in Ethiopië.
Identification and characterization of interactions between bacteriophage proteins and protein complexes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa KU Leuven
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a rod-shaped, Gram-negative bacterium which is able to colonize a very wide range of ecological niches, because of its large genome which contains a broad regulatory network to allow fast adaptations to changing environments. This capacity and the production of various virulence factors, allows this opportunistic pathogen to infect humans and cause severe, life-threatening diseases, especially in ...
Structural studies of human small heat-shock protein HSPB1, its disease-related mutants and complexes with client proteins. KU Leuven
Small heat-shock proteins (sHSPs) are an important class of molecular chaperones found in all kingdoms of life. sHSPs bind partially unfolded proteins in an energy-independent fashion and prevent the formation of insoluble, toxic aggregates inside a cell. The human genome encodes ten different sHSPs the activities and mis-regulation of which are important for human health. In particular increased levels of one member, called HSPB1, has been ...
Computational design of symmetric circulary proteins as building blocks for platonic protein frameworks KU Leuven
The host laboratory recently made 6-fold and 8-fold symmetric circular proteins using computational biomolecular modelling techniques. The 6-fold symmetric protein called Pizza has promising properties for use in nano-technology. This Pizza protein was also redesigned to coordinate metal ions, thus forming the smallest nanocrystal reported to this date. In this project, I will aim to design other symmetric proteins with a different rotational ...
Protein interplay during the establishment of arbuscular mycorrhiza: revealing the function of tomato root proteins interacting with fungal plant effectors Ghent University
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi form mutualistic associations with more than 80% of all land plants. This symbiotic interaction is established by a strict controlled exchange of signals whereby the fungus also needs to repress the plant’s defense response. From the plant pathology field, we know that this is achieved by the secretion of small effector proteins. Interestingly, AM fungi are also known to secrete effectors but little is known ...
Generic protein tool for the fast and reversible inactivation of proteins using light KU Leuven
The field of tissue engineering aims to create functional human tissues from cells to repair or replace diseased or damaged tissues and organs. An important requirement for the field to proceed is to activate or inhibit signalling pathways at specific locations and during precise time windows. However, the field currently lacks general tools to control the activity of proteins and pathways in a position and time resolved manner. A promising ...
Protein structures for health: Structural biology of therapeutic membrane proteins as a starting point for effective rational drug design. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Pharma4S - Advanced Optimisation of Recombinant Protein Bioproduction: Multi-Scale Systems Biology Study for Pharmaceutical Proteins KU Leuven
The production of proteins by using genetically modified organisms has become a multibillion-euro industry thanks to the multitude of applications. Specifically in the pharmaceutical industry, proteins are being produced in this manner to obtain a reliable and cost-efficient production process. However, the optimisation of these complex production processes is not yet taking advantage of the state-of-theart computational techniques that are ...