Tags - (2) protein aggregation

Department(s)/lab(s): EMBL Australia Node in Single Molecule Science, UNSW Medicine and Health | Gambin Single Molecule Biophysics Group @ UNSW
Summary:

Gambin was the first EMBL Australia group leader appointed to Single Molecule Science. His signature method combines cell-free protein expression with two-colour single-molecule coincidence and fluctuation spectroscopy, which sidesteps purification entirely: proteins are expressed, labelled and measured in lysate, an order of magnitude faster than conventional interaction assays. The biology is protein self-association and aggregation — alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's, cardiac and muscular disease proteins — where the size distribution of oligomers, not the mean, is the quantity of interest. Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — the conceptual overlap with quantum biosensing is the insistence on distributions over averages, and his aggregation systems (paramagnetic-species-generating, redox-active amyloid) are a plausible target for T1-relaxometry-based NV detection at pT/sqrt(Hz) in the near term.

Department(s)/lab(s): Biology / Institute of Molecular Biology (IMB) | Lemke Lab - Synthetic Biophysics @ JGU
Summary:

Lemke holds the chair of Synthetic Biophysics at JGU and is adjunct director at the Institute of Molecular Biology. The group's signature is combining genetic code expansion -- installing non-canonical amino acids so a dye can be clicked onto one chosen residue -- with single-molecule fluorescence: smFRET on intrinsically disordered proteins, super-resolution imaging of the nuclear pore complex and its FG-nucleoporin permeability barrier, and engineered membraneless organelles used as designer compartments in living cells. The result is single-molecule-resolution measurement of conformational dynamics and phase behaviour inside cells rather than in vitro. Relative to the established NV-ensemble quantum-sensing playbook (DEER, nanoscale NMR, T1 relaxometry at pT/sqrt(Hz) ensemble sensitivity), this is the strongest biosensing/advanced-microscopy host in Mainz: the labelling chemistry is precisely what a quantum-sensing postdoc would need to attach nanodiamonds or spin labels to a defined protein site, and the group already operates at the single-molecule sensitivity limit optically. Large, well-funded, internationally recruiting group.