Chemistry & Biochemistry Seminar: "Protein misfolding and amyloid disaggregases to counter misfolding"

Seminar by: Dr. Meredith Jackrel, Washington University in St. Louis

There are no therapies that reverse the aberrant liquid-liquid phase separation and protein misfolding events that underpin neurodegenerative diseases including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). Hsp104, a conserved hexameric AAA+ protein from yeast, solubilizes disordered aggregates and amyloid, but has no metazoan homolog and only limited activity against human neurodegenerative disease proteins.

Dr. Meredith Jackrel will describe the work to reprogram Hsp104 to rescue proteins that misfold in ALS and PD. She will also describe efforts to better understand the mechanism of Hsp104 potentiation, enabling the engineering of variants with improved properties. Finally, she will describe the work to better understand the molecular drivers of aberrant liquid-liquid phase separation and consequent aggregation, and how this process drives disease.

Join via Zoom.

Meeting ID: 925 1100 1032

Passcode: 222885

Free