Andy is giving a talk at this years Keystone conference, Structural Biology of Cellular Processes: from Atoms to Cells (J6), in Colorado.

Our articles on the dynamics of αB-crystallin were published back-to-back in the Journal of Molecular Biology this week. They are the product of our collaboration with Justin Benesch, and were highlighted both on the cover, and in a commentary article by John Carver.

“Special issue as a tribute to Lewis E Kay on his 50th birthday”
Gardner KH, Mittermaier A, Mulder FAA
J Biol. NMR (2011) 51:3-4 pdf

A present to Lewis Kay from some of his old boys :)

At long last, we’ve published our paper on Amyloid fibril thermodynamic stability. This paper is significant in that we have strong thermodynamic evidence that the native, functional state of a range of common human proteins is not the thermodynamically favoured state, as is conventionally thought. Instead, these proteins can lower their free energy by forming amyloid fibrils. This paper has some exciting consequences. For example, proteins must aggregate and form fibrils slowly in order for a biological organism to function. Also, kinetic mechanisms to prevent proteins from aggregating, such as molecular chaperones, are crucial for survival.

This work has been described in a commentary by Devarajan Thirumalai and Govardhan Reddy in Nature Chemistry.