Current laboratory members (left to right): Bethany Lee (BCMB, Class of 2020), Amy Zheng (PhD student), Merc Kemeh (PhD student), Dr. Noel Lazo, Henrique Lemos-Brito (BCMB, Class of 2020), Timothy Soldano (BCMB, Class of 2020), Ibrahim Ozgenc (BCMB, Class of 2020), and Saadman Islam (BCMB, BA/MS expected in 2020).
OUR MAIN AREA OF INTEREST IS PROTEIN MISFOLDING AND SELF-ASSEMBLY ASSOCIATED WITH DISEASE
Proteins of interest:
Amyloid proteins associated with amyloidoses including the islet amyloid polypeptide in type 2 diabetes, the amyloid-β protein in Alzheimer’s disease, and lysozyme in systemic amyloidosis; keratins and collagens in the skin blistering disease called epidermolysis bullosa.
Methods:
We use a variety of biophysical and biochemical techniques including nuclear magnetic resonance, circular dichroism, limited proteolysis/mass spectrometry, electron microscopy and molecular modeling to probe the folding and self-assembly of proteins associated with disease.
LAB NEWS…
Summer 2022:
- Liliana Wurfl (BA in BCMB, Class of 2019), a former undergraduate member of the lab who co-authored 2 journal articles, was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship. In the coming year, Lili will be conducting research on tick-borne infectious diseases in the Slovak Republic. Congratulations, Lili!
- Koki Hayashi (BA/MS in Biology, Class of 2021) successfully defended his MS thesis titled “Differential Susceptibility of ApoE Isoforms to Proteolytic Degradation.” Beginning September 2022, Koki will be working in the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Medical School. Congratulations, Koki!
