Skip to main content
Vai all'homepage della Commissione europea (si apre in una nuova finestra)
italiano it
CORDIS - Risultati della ricerca dell’UE
CORDIS
Contenuto archiviato il 2024-05-29

Development and application of time resolved resonance energy transfer (tr-FRET) based methods for investigation of the earliest stages of protein folding and misfolding

Obiettivo

The question of how the sequence of amino acids dictates the final fold of globular proteins remains one of the fundamental riddles of structural biology. The objective of the present research plan is to identify sequence elements that contribute key local and non-local interactions that are effective during the initial steps of the folding process.

A series of experiments are proposed to identify critical residues that form such effective interactions. Initial phases of the misfolding of globular and natively unfolded proteins will be explored in order to explain these processes and ultimately to control negative consequences of misfolding, e.g. formation of amyloid plaques. An interdisciplinary approach aimed primarily at structural characterization of the rapidly changing ensembles of partially folded protein molecules will be adopted. A number of methods will be applied, in particular time resolved FRET, -FRET detected FCS; FRET detected fast-kinetic methods, (a novel high pressure jump and micromixing based double kinetics experiments); protein engineering and computational methods.

The hypothesis is that few very effective non-local contacts can direct the backbone into a native like fold at the early phase of the folding transition. This hypothesis will be explored to identify the essential key interactions and specific clusters of residues that contribute to those interactions. The response of the ensembles of conformers to changes of pressure; temperature; solvent composition and to the insertion of structure perturbation mutations will be monitored. Computational and bioinformatics methods will be applied in an attempt to generalize the experimental results.

In order to achieve these goals the host research group will bring in
- methods for construction of a pressure -jump and micromixing devices;
- methods of molecular dynamics simulations, and
- the technology enabling single molecule detection.

Campo scientifico (EuroSciVoc)

Parole chiave

Argomento(i)

Invito a presentare proposte

FP6-2004-MOBILITY-3
Vedi altri progetti per questo bando

Meccanismo di finanziamento

TOK - Marie Curie actions-Transfer of Knowledge

Coordinatore

BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY
Contributo UE
Nessun dato
Indirizzo
Bar Ilan University Campus
RAMAT GAN
Israele
Costo totale
Nessun dato

Partecipanti (1)