{"334481":{"#nid":"334481","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Proposal by Aditi Sharma","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EAditi Sharma\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPh.D. Proposal Presentation\u003Cbr \/\u003E2:00 PM, Friday, October 24, 2014\u003Cbr \/\u003EU.A. Whitaker 1214\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdvisor:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAndreas S. Bommarius, Ph.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ECo-Advisors:\u003Cbr \/\u003ESven H. Behrens, Ph.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology) Yury O. Chernoff, \u003Cbr \/\u003EPh.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommittee:\u003Cbr \/\u003EM. G. Fin, Ph.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology)\u003Cbr \/\u003EJulie A. Champion, Ph.D. (Georgia Institute of Technology)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EStudies on Amyloid Aggregation and Cross-Species Prion Transmission\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAmyloids are an important class of proteins because of their involvement in \u003Cbr \/\u003Ea number of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer\u2019s disease, \u003Cbr \/\u003EParkinson\u2019s disease, and Huntington\u2019s disease. Notably, these proteins have \u003Cbr \/\u003Ea tendency to acquire a stable alternate conformation rich in beta-sheets \u003Cbr \/\u003Eand associate with each other to form fibrous ordered aggregates. Due to \u003Cbr \/\u003Etheir unique properties and involvement in a number of fatal diseases there \u003Cbr \/\u003Eis a lot of interest in studying this class of proteins. Another \u003Cbr \/\u003Echaracteristic of amyloidogenic proteins is that a given protein may adopt \u003Cbr \/\u003Emany distinct conformations, known as \u201cvariants\u201d or \u201cstrains\u201d. Once formed, \u003Cbr \/\u003Ea strain is efficiently reproduced under the same conditions on addition of \u003Cbr \/\u003Ethe same prion protein. On the other hand, cross species transmission of \u003Cbr \/\u003Eprions is less efficient due to a \u201cspecies barrier\u201d which prevents the \u003Cbr \/\u003Etransmission of the prion state between prion proteins from different \u003Cbr \/\u003Especies with divergent sequences. The molecular basis of prion transmission \u003Cbr \/\u003Eand mechanisms of prion strain formation are not yet fully understood.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe overall objective of this thesis is to study how ion specificity affects \u003Cbr \/\u003Ethe mechanisms of aggregation and cross-species transmission of \u003Cbr \/\u003Eamyloidogenic proteins. Amyloid aggregation process will be studied using \u003Cbr \/\u003Ethe NM fragment of Sup35 and Amyloid beta 1-42 peptide as model systems to \u003Cbr \/\u003Eunderstand the aggregation mechanism and study the effect of environmental \u003Cbr \/\u003Efactors on aggregation kinetics. The insights gained from this study will \u003Cbr \/\u003Eallow extension of these concepts to other mammalian systems and will be \u003Cbr \/\u003Euseful for developing new methods for preventing amyloid aggregation.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Studies on Amyloid Aggregation and Cross-Species Prion Transmission"}],"uid":"28077","created_gmt":"2014-10-15 15:42:30","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 02:09:46","author":"Danielle Ramirez","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2014-10-24T15:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2014-10-24T17:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2014-10-24T17:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2014-10-24 19:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2014-10-24 21:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2014-10-24 21:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"},{"id":"102861","name":"Ph.D. proposal"},{"id":"5603","name":"thesis"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}