Research

Structural information about toxic soluble oligomers of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) could yield insight into the mechanisms and rates of IDP aggregation, a hallmark of various degenerative diseases. Native mass spectrometry (nMS) is capable of analyzing transient oligomeric states of IDPs and capturing the structural ensembles they form enroute to aggregation. nMS, and gas phase activation will be applied to investigate mixed IDP aggregation, and time-resolved nMS methods will be developed to measure rates of IDP aggregation, and screen for potential inhibitors of IDP aggregation.

Nucleic acids prove to be challenging targets for existing structural analysis techniques, necessitating the development of novel approaches capable of elucidating structural information about these structurally enigmatic biomolecules. Novel nMS-based methods, including charge detection-MS, will be developed to make structural measurements of nucleic acids, and their complexes.