ISBUC researchers receive 8 grants from DFF

 Anja Thoe Fuglsang (PLEN)

Professor Anja Thoe Fuglsang (PLEN) has received a DFF grant for her project Fungaffine drugs: Exploring high-affinity peptides as anti-fungal agents. This project emerges from the fact that the reconstitution of the fungal H+-ATPase in Nano-disc allows for an inhibitor screening using a state-of-the-art cyclic peptide screening platform, which produces cyclic peptide ‘hits' which routinely outperform small molecules in binding affinity and specificity. In this project, the precise binding site(s) will be determined by cryo EM studies of the pump/inhibitor complex.

Céline Galvagnion-Büll (ILF)

Associate Professor Céline Galvagnion-Büll (ILF) has received a DFF grant for her project Understanding the cytotoxicity of protein-lipid aggregates in Parkinson's Disease. This project aims to understand the mechanism by which lipid-containing αS aggregatesformed in test tubes and in vivo can lead to the death of dopaminergic neurons, a process at the heart of neurodegeneration in the context of Parkinson's Disease.

Claus Juul Løland (SUND)

Professor Claus Juul Løland (IN) has received a DFF grant for his project The structural basis for the binding of cocaine to the human dopamine transporter. In it, they will use single particle cryo-EM and molecular pharmacology to elucidate the dopamine transporter structure in complex with inhibitors.

Joseph Matthew Rogers (ILF)

Associate Professor Joseph Matthew Rogers (ILF) has received a DFF grant for his project Folding the unfolded with de novo proteins. In this project, Joseph will be designing proteins capable of binding disordered peptides, using protein structure prediction networks "in reverse" to generate these new peptide-binding designs.

Kaare Teilum (BIO)

Professor Kaare Telium (BIO) and collaborators Kasper Rand (IF) and Frans Mulder (University of Linz) have been awarded a DFF grant for their project titled Transient structure in NCOA3 by accurate hydrogen exchange. In the project, they are working to develop a method that can be used to investigate the stability of short-lived structures in proteins, very accurately and on very small amounts of sample.

Leila Lo Leggio (CHEM)

Professor Leila Lo Leggio (Dept. of Chemistry) has received a DFF grant for her project pH dependent protonation of protein residues. Given that pH-dependent properties of proteins are extremely important in biology and biotechnology, in this project the aim is to harness new knowledge on protein residue protonation by largely re-analysing high resolution crystallographic data in the PDB.

Pontus Emanuel Gourdon (SUND)

Associate Professor Pontus Emanuel Gourdon (BMI) has received a grant for his project Structural studies of CLC proteins. In his group, Gourdon works on structural and functional characterization of membrane proteins that are essential for human health and highly attractive targets in the treatment of disease. The overarching aim is to reveal the molecular principles and determinants of transport processes across cellular membranes for these proteins, and CLC has been one of their focuses for many years.

Stephan Pless (ILF)

Professor Stephan Pless (ILF) has received two DFF Project grants.

He has received a Project 2 grant for his project titled Changing the channel: Structure-function coupled ligand discovery for acid sensors. The goal of this project is to develop cyclic peptide binders to target acid-sensing ion channels and functionally and structurally investigate the resulting ligand-receptor complexes. This collaborative grant was obtained together with the groups of Associate Professors Henriette Autzen and Joseph Rogers; a collaboration whicih was started at an ISBUC event.

Pless has also recieved a Project 1 grant for the project Targeting disease-causing sodium leak channel mutations by disrupting G protein modulation. The aim of this project is to rectify the disease-causing effects of mutations in the sodium leak channel through modulation of its interaction with G proteins.