Professor of Biology, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies - Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

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Host:  Julien Roche

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"Novel Tools for Biophysical Studies of Amyloidogenesis"

Amyloid fibrils are protein aggregates that self-assemble into highly ordered cross-b-sheet rich structures.  These structures are found to be ubiquitous in all domains of life from bacteria to humans where they perform large variety biological functions. 

Growing evidence suggests that amyloid fold is ancient and might represent a biological structure of early life, and the work on the discovery of novel proteins that specifically bind amyloid fibrils will be described.  The molecular mechanisms by which this binding occurs will be discussed, and several applications of these proteins to study mechanisms of amyloid formation will be presented.