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SUMMARY:Bridging Time and Length Scales in Pathological Protein Aggregatio
 n
DTSTART:20190321T091500
DTSTAMP:20260510T001755Z
UID:54b11e5c3535b38e7208bcb29a4806a7640576bc37081ac27ba74aff
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Thomas C.T. Michaels\, Ph.D.\, Harvard University (USA) and Un
 iversity of Cambridge (UK)\nBIOENGINEERING SEMINAR\n \nAbstract:\nOver 50
  medical disorders\, including Alzheimer’s disease\, Parkinson’s disea
 se and Type-II diabetes\, are intimately connected with the aggregation of
  precursor peptides and proteins into pathological fibrillar structures kn
 own as amyloids. To design rational therapeutic strategies against these p
 rotein aggregation diseases it is thus imperative to quantify the fundamen
 tal principles that control pathological aggregation into amyloid fibrils.
  The fundamental challenge in establishing such an understanding in a rigo
 rous manner is the disparate nature of the spatial and temporal scales inv
 olved. In this talk\, I will demonstrate how we can address this challenge
  by bringing the power of quantitative methods rooted in statistical physi
 cs and applied mathematics to protein aggregation. I will first discuss a 
 unified theory of protein aggregation kinetics and show how it provides th
 e basis for interpreting experimental aggregation kinetics data in terms o
 f specific microscopic mechanisms controlling the proliferation of fibrils
 . I will then apply the resulting methods to shed light on the fundamental
  molecular mechanisms of the dynamics of toxic oligomers of the Amyloid-β
  peptide Aβ42 of Alzheimer’s disease. I will also discuss how theory ca
 n guide us in the development of rational strategies for controlling aberr
 ant protein aggregation in time and space. In particular\, I will bring to
 gether protein aggregation kinetics with optimal control theory to determi
 ne explicit optimal administration protocols for drugs that inhibit specif
 ic molecular events during the aggregation process. I will finally introdu
 ce modern ideas from liquid-liquid phase separation to investigate how liq
 uid cellular compartments could be implicated in spatially regulating prot
 ein aggregation.\n\nBio:\nEmployment History:\n07/2016 - Present:  Paulso
 n School of Engineering and Applied Sciences\, Harvard University\, Cambri
 dge\, MA\, USA\nSwiss National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in A
 pplied Mathematics\n10/2016 - Present:  Peterhouse\, University of Cambri
 dge\, United Kingdom\nJunior Research Fellow in Physics.\n\nEduation:\n10/
 2012 - 06/2016:  PhD in Physical Chemistry\, University of Cambridge\, Un
 ited Kingdom\n09/2010 - 06/2012:  Master of Science ETH in Mathematics\, 
 ETH Zürich\, Switzerland\n09/2010 - 06/2012:  Master of Science ETH in P
 hysics\, ETH Zürich\, Switzerland\n09/2007 - 06/2010:  Bachelor of Scien
 ce ETH in Physics\, ETH Zürich\, Switzerland.\n\n\nZoom link for attendin
 g remotely:  https://epfl.zoom.us/j/246384287
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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