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NANO Colloquia 2021 in streaming - Riccardo Nifosì Seminar  

Pisa Modena - 15.04.2021 - NANO Colloquia 2021 in streaming - Riccardo Nifosì Seminar

Date and Time: Thursday 15 April 2021 - 11:00
Streaming at: https://meet.google.com/tcu-rsiq-dfb
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Speaker: Riccardo Nifosì - NEST, Istituto Nanoscienze-CNR and Scuola Normale Superiore

Title: Coiled coils for chloride indicators and other pursuits in protein modelling and design

Abstract: The design of proteins, i.e. finding an amino acid sequence that folds in a predetermined structure, has evolved from what was once considered an impossible task to a powerful tool for the realisation of protein architectures with novel structures and functions. Here I will present my recent work on the design of a protein domain which undergoes conformational transitions upon chloride binding. Starting from existing trimers of ɑ helices (so called coiled coils) with Cl- binding sites at their interface, putative sequences of monomeric three ɑ-helix bundles were found using established protein design tools (Rosetta). The folding landscape and the stability of the most promising sequences were analysed based on protein-structure prediction methods and extensive molecular dynamics simulations. The availability of such Cl--sensitive domains could be exploited for engineering novel fluorescence-based reporters of Cl- concentration inside cells and tissues, by genetically fusing the designed sequences to suitably re-arranged fluorescent protein genes (such as in the Cameleon and GCaMP families of Ca2+sensors).

Host:
Fabio Taddei (9038) - fabio.taddei@nano.cnr.it
Stefan Heun (9472) - stefan.heun@nano.cnr.it
 


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