Exploring Biological Nanostructures in Native Heterogeneous Environment Using Solid-state NMR and Complementary Methods

by Prof. N.C. Nielsen (Aarhus University, Denmark)

Wednesday 10 Apr 2013, 11:30 → 12:30 Asia/Kolkata

NMR Conference Room (Colaba Campus)

In the quest for obtaining inspiration from Nature's advanced nano machineries, it is of great interest to establish high-resolution structure information of biological macromolecules in their heterogeneous native environment. This is not trivial using traditional high-resolution methods such as X-ray diffraction and liquid-state NMR spectroscopy requiring the molecular entities being in well-ordered 3D crystals or fast tumbling in solution. With examples of antimicrobial peptides, amyloid fibrils, and the antenna system in the chlorosomes of green sulfur bacteria, we demonstrate that combinations of solid-state NMR spectroscopy, MD simulations, AFM/SPM, and cryo-EM offers great potential to explore structure and dynamics of proteins in functional, heterogeneous environment. In addition to providing fundamental biological insight, such studies motivates the design of artificial nanoscale ion channels, biomarkers for early-stage detection of dementia, and artificial photo receptors.