The complex life of proteins: folding, trafficking, misfolding, aggregation and repair | Biophysics Workshops in South Africa

The complex life of proteins: folding, trafficking, misfolding, aggregation and repair

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Abstract

In this talk, I will review briefly the problem of protein folding, and how it may go wrong. I will then introduce broadly the cellular machines that take care of these problems and show how the combination of different experimental techniques with theory and computation can provide us with a satisfying description of the mechanism of some of them.

Speaker

Dr Paolo De Los Rios

Laboratory of Statistical Biophysics (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne)

About

Paolo De Los Rios earned his master in Electronic Engineering at the Turin Institute of Technology (Politecnico di Torino) in May 1993. In November 1993 he moved to Trieste, Italy, to enter the PhD program in Theoretical Condensed Matter Theory at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA/ISAS) where he obtained the PhD degree in October 1996 for his work on the statistical physics of disordered systems. After a one year postdoc at the Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden, Germany, in November 1997 he moved to the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, to join the group of Prof. Yi-Cheng Zhang. There he has worked on various applications of statistical physics to complex systems. In September 2000 he has been appointed Assistant Professor in Statistical Physics of Living Matter and Complex Systems at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Since April 2010 he is Associate Professor at the Institute of Theoretical Physics of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.

Selected recent publications

1.
Rukes, V., Rebeaud, M. E., Perrin, L. W., De Los Rios, P. & Cao, C. Single-molecule evidence of Entropic Pulling by Hsp70 chaperones. Nat Commun 15, 8604 (2024). Cite
1.
Liang, S., De Los Rios, P. & Busiello, D. M. Thermodynamic Bounds on Symmetry Breaking in Linear and Catalytic Biochemical Systems. Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 228402 (2024). Cite
1.
Rebeaud, M. E. et al. Autorepression of yeast Hsp70 cochaperones by intramolecular interactions involving their J-domains. Cell Stress and Chaperones 29, 338–348 (2024). Cite
1.
Marszalek, J. et al. J-domain proteins: From molecular mechanisms to diseases. Cell Stress and Chaperones 29, 21–33 (2024). Cite

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About

The Biophysics in Africa Monthly Colloquium Series is a joint project of the African Light Source Foundation (AfLS), African Physical Society (AfPS), and the South African Institute of Physics (SAIP). SAIP is an adhering body of the International Union of Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB). The colloquia are always on the last Wednesday of every month. In addition to participation by students and colleagues worldwide, we invite speakers from around the globe as well. For more information please feel free to contact us at colloquium.series@africanbiophysics.org