Publications related to Structural and Functional Determinants of gamma-Secretase, an Intramembrane Protease Implicated in Alzheimer's Disease

Structure and dynamics of liquid water from ab initio simulations: adding Minnesota density functionals to Jacob's ladder

Ursula Röthlisberger, Justin Villard, Martin Peter Bircher

The accurate representation of the structural and dynamical properties of water is essential for simulating the unique behavior of this ubiquitous solvent. Here we assess the current status of describing liquid water using ab initio molecular dynamics, wit ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2024

Synthesis and application of bifunctional hypervalent iodine reagents for peptide modification

Elija Grinhagena

Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) are responsible for regulating many biological processes in human bodies. PPIs often have a large binding site and often interact through an alpha helical segment. Therefore, the inhibition of PPIs can be difficult using ...

EPFL2023

Deconstructing and Reconstructing the Complexity of Tau pathology

Galina Limorenko

This thesis consists of four Chapters unified by a singular theme â how do we develop disease models that faithfully reproduce the pathology seen in patients suffering from neurodegenerative disorders associated with the Tau protein, such as Alzheimerâ ...

EPFL2023

Preliminary design of the cold mass supports for the EU DEMO feeders

Kamil Sedlák, Roberto Guarino

The Cold Mass Support (CMS) is a basic structural component of the feeder system of the EU DEMO tokamak. The function of this structural element is not only to provide support to the containment duct - wiring the cryogenic lines, electrical bus bars and in ...

2023

De novo designed proteins: a study in engineering novel folds and functions

Alexandra Krina Van Hall-Beauvais

Proteins control nearly every facet of life on a molecular level. Proteins are formed from linear strings of amino acids, which fold into three-dimensional structures that can enact functions. Evolution has created highly efficient proteins in diverse fold ...

EPFL2023

Computational Studies for the Design of Metalloenzyme Mimics

Guido Frisari

At present, there is no general standard automated method for engineering metalloenzymes, industrially-relevant systems able to catalyze environmentally friendly reactions. One of the most studied natural metalloenzymes is the second isoform of human carbo ...

EPFL2023

Combined Passive and Active Ultrasonic Stress Wave Monitoring of UHPFRC Properties on a Structural Level

Eugen Brühwiler, Numa Joy Bertola, Thomas Schumacher

Ultra-High-Performance Fiber-Reinforced Cementitious Composite (UHPFRC) is becoming popular in designing lightweight and durable structures. UHPFRC structural elements remain crack-free and waterproof under service conditions, significantly improving durab ...

2023

Structural characterisation of nanoalloys for (photo)catalytic applications with the Sapphire library

Kevin Rossi

A non-trivial interplay rules the relationship between the structure and the chemophysical properties of a nanoparticle. In this context, characterization experiments, molecular dynamics simulations and electronic structure calculations may allow the varia ...

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY2022

Bacterial matrix metalloproteases and serine proteases contribute to the extra-host inactivation of enteroviruses in lake water

Virginie Bachmann, Tamar Kohn

Enteroviruses are ubiquitous contaminants of surface waters, yet their fate in presence of microbial congeners is poorly understood. In this work, we investigated the inactivation of Echovirus-11 (E11) and Coxsackievirus-A9 (CVA9) by bacteria isolated from ...

2022

Computational Studies of the Proton-Coupled Metal Ion Transport in the SLC11/NRAMP Family of Transporters

Maria Letizia Merlini

In the last years, it has been demonstrated a link between the overload of metal ions inside nervous system cells and the onset of severe neurodegenerative diseases. This prompted the investigation of the structural and functional properties of transporter ...

EPFL2022

Reverse engineering Lewy bodies: how far have we come and how far can we go?

Hilal Lashuel, Mohamed Bilal Fares, Somanath Jagannath

Lewy bodies (LBs) are α-synuclein (α-syn)-rich intracellular inclusions that are an important pathological hallmark of Parkinson disease and several other neurodegenerative diseases. Increasing evidence suggests that the aggregation of α-syn has a central ...

2021

Enhancing mitochondrial quality control to fight neuromuscular degeneration in aging and disease

Mario Romani

Loss of mitochondrial function and proteostasis typify aging and age-associated degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and muscle aging. To date, no cure or preventive measure is available to manage these conditions. Alterations of cellular pro ...

EPFL2021

Component reuse in structural design: emerging practices and tools for the circular economy

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting, Jonas Warmuth, Pierluigi D'Acunto

Structural engineers play an increasing role in ensuring the transition towards a more sustainable construction sector: a) they are responsible for the design of the most resource- and energy-intensive part of buildings and infrastructure, and b) they regu ...

fib2021

Structural and analytical identifications of biomolecules by cold ion spectroscopy of non-covalent complexes

Erik Saparbayev

Non-covalent interactions are ubiquitous in nature. The diversity and functionality of these interactions are employed by nature as a universal tool for building the molecular mechanism of life. Although weak, these interactions play a key role in both for ...

EPFL2021

3D Structure From 2D Microscopy Images Using Deep Learning

Suliana Manley, Christian Sieben

Understanding the structure of a protein complex is crucial in determining its function. However, retrieving accurate 3D structures from microscopy images is highly challenging, particularly as many imaging modalities are two-dimensional. Recent advances i ...

Frontiers Media Sa2021

Amphiphilic Iodine(III) Reagents for the Lipophilization of Peptides in Water

Jérôme Waser, Durga Prasada Rao Hari, Romain Gaëtan Tessier, Abhaya Kumar Mishra

We report the functionalization of cysteine residues with lipophilic alkynes bearing a silyl group or an alkyl chain using amphiphilic ethynylbenziodoxolone reagents (EBXs). The reactions were carried out in buffer (pH 6 to 9), without organic co-solvent o ...

Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH2021

Luminescent, porous, metal-organic crystals: Design, synthesis, and applications

Fatmah Ebrahim

The work presented in this thesis is focused on the design and discovery of new luminescent, porous, crystalline materials for targeted applications. In particular, we focus on luminescent Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and Organic Molecules of Intrinsic ...

EPFL2020

Molecular dissection of amyloid disaggregation by human HSP70

Paolo De Los Rios, Alessandro Barducci

The molecular steps that lead to the disaggregation of amyloid fibrils are shown to involve the synergistic action of HSP70 and its co-chaperones DNAJB1 and HSP110. ...

NATURE RESEARCH2020

Gold nanoparticles as a new tool in amyloid studies

Urszula Beata Cendrowska

The misfolding and self-assembly of proteins into fibrils is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative and systemic diseases. These disease-associated proteins have the propensity to form fibrils with a cross-Î² sheet structure, called amyloids. Amyloids can ...

EPFL2020

Single-molecule studies of amyloid proteins: from biophysical properties to diagnostic perspectives

Chan Cao

In neurodegenerative diseases, a wide range of amyloid proteins or peptides such as amyloid-beta and alpha-synuclein fail to keep native functional conformations, followed by misfolding and self-assembling into a diverse array of aggregates. The aggregates ...

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS2020