The Giorgio Careri Memorial Lectures Series

by Prof. Antonino Cattaneo (Scuola Normale Superiore (Pisa))

Tuesday 27 May 2014, 16:00 → 18:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Conversi (Dipartimento di Fisica Ed. - G. Marconi)

Neurodegeneration and protein misfolding and aggregation in the cell. The folding of proteins in the crowded environment of a cell is a highly regulated process. The oligomerization and subsequent aggregation of misfolded proteins that escape the cellular quality control system is an emerging common feature of a number of highly prevalent human neurodegeneration pathologies, including Alzheimer's disease. The onset and progression of these diseases is associated to the aberrant oligomerization and subsequent aggregation of normal proteins and peptides. Studying the oligomerization process in the cell represents a big challenge. I will describe recent experiments aimed at developing a toolbox to study and interfere with the toxic oligomerization process of Alzheimer's proteins in the context of living cells.