Computational methods for studying amyloids and their interactions

Date

Jun 13, 2023

Time

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Speaker

Jakub W. Wojciechowski

Affiliation

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

Language

en

Main Topic

Biologie

Host

Agnes Toth-Petroczy

Description

Amyloids are insoluble, fibrilar protein aggregates, commonly known for their role in the development of neurodegenerative disorders. However, more recent studies show that such structures can be utilized by a variety of organisms to perform physiological functions including biofilm formation, hormone storage and signaling. Furthermore, it was shown that both functional and pathological amyloids can interact in a number of ways. Such interactions can lead to a significant increase in aggregation rates or inhibition of fibril formation. Despite the importance of amyloids, our understanding of processes governing their sefl assembly is still quite limited. The available experimental methods of studying amyloids are expensive and time-consuming. To overcome this problem several computational methods were proposed, but their capabilities are still limited. During my PhD, I developed a new method for the identification of aggregation-prone regions in proteins - PATH (Prediction of Amyloidogenicity by THreading) as well as a method for amyloid interaction predictions - PACT (Prediction of Amyloid Cross-Interactions by Threading). I also developed approaches for the identification of amyloids in proteome-wide studies. Finally, I aimed at investigating the possible interactions between functional amyloids produced by the gut microbiome and human disease-related amyloids.

Last modified: Jun 14, 2023, 7:37:07 AM