WELCOME TO THE LAZO LAB!
OUR MAIN AREA OF INTEREST IS ON THE BIOPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY OF PROTEIN MISFOLDING AND SELF-ASSEMBLY IN DISEASE.
Proteins of interest:
Amyloid proteins associated with amyloidoses including the islet amyloid polypeptide in type 2 diabetes and the amyloid-β protein in Alzheimer’s disease; keratins and collagens in the skin blistering disease called epidermolysis bullosa.
Biophysical methods:
We use a variety of biophysical and biochemical techniques including nuclear magnetic resonance, circular dichroism, limited proteolysis/mass spectrometry, and electron microscopy.
LAB NEWS…
Gai (Grace) Liu, Noel’s first Ph.D. student, successfully defended her dissertation titled: Mechanistic Studies of IAPP Self-Assembly: The Importance of α-Helix in the Early Events. Grace’s work resulted in three first-author papers in ACS journals including JACS, Biochemistry and ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters. Grace is now a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Medicine of Washington University. Best wishes to Grace and we look forward to seeing more Liu et al. papers!
Jennifer Gaines (Class of 2012), graduated with highest honors in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology! Jennifer performed her honor’s research in the Lazo lab and wrote her thesis titled: Biophysical Studies of the Self-Assembly of the Amyloid-β Protein in the Presence of Rifamycin SV. Jennifer is the second author of Grace’s paper which appeared recently in ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters.
