Manipulation of molecular interactions in protein nanostructures: implications in drug design and bioengineering

Dr. Sharmistha Sinha, Postdoctoral Associate, RJ Carver Department of Biophysics, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA will give a seminar on "Manipulation of molecular interactions in protein nanostructures: implications in drug design and bioengineering" at 10:00 am on Thursday, 6 February 2014 in Room L3.

This seminar is a part of Biomedical Engineering Seminar Series organized by the Biomedical Engineering program of the institute. The abstract of the talk and a brief biodata of the speaker is appended below.

You all are invited to kindly attend the seminar.

Abstract
Manipulation of Molecular Interactions in Protein Nanostructures: Implications in Drug Design and Bioengineering

Sharmistha Sinha
RJ Carver Dept. Biophysics, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA-50011

Protein-protein interactions are implicated in several important biological processes including DNA replication, signal transduction, cellular transport processes, molecular recognition and defense mechanism. My overarching research focuses on the understanding and manipulation of these interactions. In my talk I will demonstrate two distinct paradigms. At first I will talk about the development of therapeutic strategies in protein misfolding diseases by the manipulation of crucial interactions that nucleate aberrant protein folding. Using a rational approach, I have identified lysine specific “molecular tweezers,” which inhibit the aggregation and toxicity in amyloidogenic proteins. I will discuss how the lead compound, CLR01, inhibits the aggregation and toxicity of multiple amyloidogenic proteins1-4. This strategy paves a new avenue for the development of therapeutics for protein misfolding disease using a “process specific” rather than “protein specific” or “disease specific” approach—a unique disease-modifying approach that has not been tested till date. In the second part of my talk I will focus on bacterial microcompartments (MCPs), which are all protein organelles that optimize several conditional metabolic reactions in bacteria. I will talk about the identification of the molecular interactions that stabilize the MCPs with reference to the Pdu MCPs involved in propane-1,2-diol metabolism 5, 6. Following this I will discuss about my future research goals where I will elaborate on how to harness the properties of the MCPs for solving different real life issues including bio-fuel production, bio-sensor development and bio-remediation.

About the speaker
Dr. Sharmistha Sinha is a Postdoctoral Associate at the RJ Carver Department of Biophysics, Biochemistry, and Molecular Biology, Iowa State University, Ames. She earned her PhD degree at the Molecular Biophysics Unit (MBU), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore under Prof. A. Surolia in 2006. Her doctoral research work was focussed on protein folding-unfolding reactions in oligomeric legume lectins. After her PhD, she worked as a research associate at the Indian Institute of Science from 2006-2008 and then as postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, prior to joining her current position at Iowa State in 2010. She has about ten years of research experience in biomaterials based on prokaryotic protein assemblies; biosensors and bio-targeting; drug design for protein misfolding diseases; ligand-protein interactions; protein structure-function relationship; and genetic engineering of prokaryotic macromolecular assemblies. She has published 35 research articles in peer-reviewed journals.