Events Calendar for Drexel UniversityClick here to Print
Event Details
Notify me if this event changes.Add this event to my personal calendar.
Go Back
Physics Colloquium: Biophysics of Protein Self-Assembly and Its Relevance to Human Disease
Start Date: 10/25/2018Start Time: 3:30 PM
End Date: 10/25/2018End Time: 4:30 PM
Event Description

Brigita Urbanc, PhD, Drexel University

Protein self-assembly is implicated in many age–triggered disorders, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, type II diabetes, systemic amyloidosis, and many others. Intrinsically disordered proteins associated with these disorders do not share any obvious aspects of their primary structure yet they form unstructured heterogeneous oligomers, which further aggregate into amyloid fibrils with a common cross-ß structure. Substantial evidence implicates short-lived heterogeneous oligomers formed by these proteins as the proximate toxic species that triggers the disease pathology. Oligomers are notoriously difficult to study both experimentally and computationally. Although some universal aspects of self-assembly may be in common to all amyloidogenic proteins, a single amino acid substitution can alter the assembly pathway and cytotoxic properties of a specific protein in an unexpected way. My group uses several computational and experimental methods to address universal as well as protein-specific questions about protein folding, assembly, and activity. I will elucidate recent findings of my group on self-assembly of amyloid  ß -protein, implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, and insulin, which is not directly implicated in human disease yet forms oligomers at physiological conditions.

Contact Information:
Name: Professor Gordon Richards
Location:
Disque Hall, room 919, 32 South 32nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Audience:
  • Undergraduate Students
  • Graduate Students
  • Faculty

  • Select item(s) to Search



    Select item(s) to Search
    Select item(s) to Search
    Select item(s) to Search