Affect of lipids on the morphology of amyloid disease proteins | Poster Board #248

Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying amyloid diseases like Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer’s, and Type 2 Diabetes remains a difficult challenge. Significant progress has been made in elucidating the roles of various proteins implicated in these pathologies. However, the role of lipids in the onset and progression of amyloid diseases remains unclear. Numerous studies reported by our laboratory show that lipids drastically alter the aggregation rates of amyloid proteins and change the secondary structure and morphology of amyloid aggregates. My research project is focused on the morphological characterization of amyloid oligomers and fibrils using Atomic Force Microscopy. This analytical technique can be used to reveal morphology of protein aggregates with nanometer spatial resolution. Using AFM, we discovered that phospholipids and cholesterol drastically alter the morphologies of alpha-synuclein, Tau and amylin fibrils.