SCIENCE AT THE EDGE SEMINAR SERIES

Quantitative Biology & Modeling Seminar

Friday, 02 March 2012 at 11:30am

Room 1400 Biomedical and Physical Sciences Bldg.

Refreshments at 11:15

Speaker: Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy
         Department of Chemistry and Biophysics
         University of Michigan

Title:   Dynamical Structures of Membrane Proteins by NMR Spectroscopy

Abstract:

Membrane proteins are an exciting class of biomacromolecules and play
important roles in a variety of biological processes that are directly
linked to major diseases including cancer, aging-related diseases, and
infectious diseases. A complete understanding of their function can only
be accomplished using high-resolution structures. In spite of recent
developments in structural biology, membrane proteins continue to pose
tremendous challenges to most biophysical techniques. A major area of
research in my group is focused on the development of NMR techniques
to study the dynamic structures of membrane bound proteins such as
cytochrome b5, cytochrome P450 and cytochrome P450-reductase. In my talk,
I will present strategies to study the structure and dynamics of these
challenging systems and also on the electron transfer mechanism that
enables the enzymatic function of P450. Atomic-level resolution NMR
structures of amyloidogenic proteins revealing the misfolding pathway
and early intermediates that play key roles in amyloid toxicity will
also be presented.

References:

Yamamoto et al, Fast NMR Data Acquisition From Bicelles Containing a
Membrane-Associated Peptide at Natural-Abundance. J. Phys. Chem. B. 115,
12448-12455 (2011).

Dürr et al, The cytochrome P450 and b5 and their reductases - Promising
targets for structural studies by advanced solid-state NMR spectroscopy,
BBA Biomembranes 1768, 3235-3259 (2007).

DeToma et al, Misfolded proteins in Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes,
Chem. Soc. Rev. 41, 608-621 (2012).