Applications
Structure and dynamics of protein fibrils
Amyloid fibrils are self-assembled filamentous structures associated with a wide variety of severely debilitating human pathologies like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson's disease, type II diabetes and the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. Despite the immense medical importance of amyloid fibrils, very few atomic-resolution structures are available for these materials yet. Solid-state NMR is to date the only technique capable of obtaining the structure of such non-crystalline compounds.
Presently, we are involved in studies on the following fibrillar proteins:
Interactions between small molecules and amyloid fibrils
The characterization of amyloid pharmacophores is of crucial importance for the rational design of drugs and markers and for therapeutic intervention. We are working at the development of methods to investigate the interactions between proteins forming amyloid fibrils and small molecules, e.g. drugs, dyes and markers.