Systems of interest
- Proteins and peptides involved on cell-death at the level of the membrane. This can be simple and direct membrane attackers, like peptide antibiotics, or complex regulators of physiological cell-death, like apoptotic Bcl-2 type proteins.
- Amphitropic proteins. The proteins and peptides above can have both water-soluble and membrane-bound folds, and the transition between them is a way to regulate their function. We study such transition as a refolding or structure adaptation process, for which we handel basic principles of (general) protein folding, membrane-protein insertion and membrane-protein assembly.
Methods
We are a multidisciplinary group working in a multidisciplinary environment. Thus we use all necessary methods, with the only limit of availability. In some cases this involves external collaborations.
- Molecular Biology Methods: (Gene clonning, expression and mutagenesis, protein isolation and purification).
- Peptide and Protein Chemistry: (Chemical peptide synthesis, HPLC)
- Experimental Biophysical Methods:
(CD, IR and Fluorescence spectroscopies, NMR, Calorimetry)
- Computational Biopysical Methods: (Molecular Simulations, Simulations of Spectra, Free Energy Calculations).
Collaborators
- The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Shy Arkin Lab). FTIR and X-ray reflectivity.
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Anne S. Ulrich group). Solid state NMR.
- Department of Biophysical Chemistry, University of Groningen (Siewert-Jan Marrink group). MD simulations of membranes.
- Institute of Biology and Chemistry of Proteins, CNRS Lyon (Abdel Aouacheria team). Poropeptides derived from Bcl-2 proteins.
Publications