About the Project
The Institute of Protein Biochemistry at Ulm University, Germany, investigates the molecular basis of amyloid diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and systemic amyloidosis. We use a broad range of techniques from protein biochemistry, structural biology (in particular cryo-EM) to cell biology. Our strong ties to several medical institutions enable us to uniquely link structural biology with patient samples.
We seek for several new doctorate students with an excellent Master degree in, for example, Biochemistry, Chemistry or Physics to strengthen our cryo-EM analysis of amyloid fibril structures. Projects may involve protein purification and sample preparation, cryo-EM imaging, computer-based single particle reconstruction, structural modelling and the combination of structural and biological/medical data.
Website: https://www.uni-ulm.de/nawi/nawi-pbc.html
References
Cryo-EM structure of an amyloid fibril from systemic amyloidosis. Falk Liberta, Sarah Loerch, Matthies Rennegarbe, Angelika Schierhorn, Per Westermark, Gunilla T Westermark, Nikolaus Grigorieff, Marcus Fandrich, Matthias Schmidt, BioRxiv https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/357129v1
Physical basis of amyloid fibril polymorphism. Close W, Neumann M, Schmidt A, Hora M, Annamalai K, Schmidt M, Reif B, Schmidt V, Grigorieff N, Fändrich M. Nature Comm. 9, 699 (2018)
Common Fibril Structures Imply Systemically Conserved Protein Misfolding Pathways In Vivo. Annamalai K, Liberta F, Vielberg M-T, Close W, Lilie H, Gührs K-H, Schierhorn A, Koehler R, Schmidt A, Haupt C, Hegenbart U, Schönland S, Schmidt M, Groll M, Fändrich M Angew Chem Int Ed 56, 7618–7622 (2017)
Cryo-EM reveals the steric zipper structure of a light chain-derived amyloid fibril. Schmidt A, Annamalai K, Schmidt M, Grigorieff N, Fändrich M Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 2016, 113, 6200-6205
Electron tomography reveals the fibril structure and lipid interactions in amyloid deposits. Kollmer M, Meinhardt K, Haupt C, Liberta F, Wulff M, Linder J, Handl L, Heinrich L, Loos C, Schmidt M, Syrovets T, Simmet T, Westermark P, Westermark GT, Horn U, Schmidt V, Walther P, Fändrich M. Proc Natl Acad Sci U.S.A. 2016, 113, 5604-5609
Polymorphism of amyloid fibrils in vivo. Annamalai K, Gührs KH, Koehler R, Schmidt M, Michel H, Loos C, Gaffney PM, Sigurdson CJ, Hegenbart U, Schönland S, Fändrich M Angewandte Chemie Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 4822–4825