The cold denaturation of proteins
February 20, 2022 - February 20, 2024
A study the cold denaturation of proteins by means of physical methods as neutron scattering experiments, calorimetry, densitometry and others. Internship at the Institute Laue Langevin.
Contact
Pr Judith Peters Institut Laue Langevin
Description of the internship
We are actually studying the cold denaturation of proteins. Denaturation of proteins at high temperature is well-known and studied, resulting in an unfolding and loss of functionality. However, much less is known about the denaturation at low temperature, although this also exists for all proteins, and the impact on protein structure and functionality. The difficulty is that it commonly occurs at negative temperature and is therefore difficult to investigate. High pressure can permit to shift this transition temperature to positive values.
The protein’s functionality is closely related to thermodynamical characteristics as free energy, entropy and enthalpy, heat capacity or compressibility. Surprisingly, the influence of the concentration of the protein on these quantities and thus on the denaturation has almost not been taken into account, although it has an important impact.
We therefore want to study the cold denaturation of chosen proteins (myoglobin, yeast frataxin and bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A (RNase A) as well as micrococcal nuclease (SNase)) by first measuring the thermodynamic parameters by calorimetry (DSC) and densitometry and dynamical parameters by neutron scattering and Dynamic Light Scattering. The instruments for that are all available at the Institut Laue Langevin and the measurements request more or less time, so that it is possible to do parts of them in few days and others request more availability.
The student will acquire skills on sample preparation, making DSC, DLS, densitometry and neutron scattering measurements, data analysis, writing computer codes and presenting the results to the group.
Qualifications of the applicant
This two-year research project is well adapted to students following the Soft Matter and Biophysics 1st-year major of the master N2. Basic knowledge on biological systems (proteins, membranes) and their thermodynamical properties, as well as experience on computer codes (Python,…) can be helpful.
Publications
S. A. Hawley, Biochemistry, 1971, 10, 2436–2442.
L. Smeller, Biochim Biophys Acta, 2002, 1595, 11-29.
J. Peters, J. Marion, F. J. Becher, M. Trapp, T. Gutberlet, D. J. Bicout and T. Heimburg, Sci Rep, 2017, 7, 15339
Pr Judith Peters Institut Laue Langevin
Description of the internship
We are actually studying the cold denaturation of proteins. Denaturation of proteins at high temperature is well-known and studied, resulting in an unfolding and loss of functionality. However, much less is known about the denaturation at low temperature, although this also exists for all proteins, and the impact on protein structure and functionality. The difficulty is that it commonly occurs at negative temperature and is therefore difficult to investigate. High pressure can permit to shift this transition temperature to positive values.
The protein’s functionality is closely related to thermodynamical characteristics as free energy, entropy and enthalpy, heat capacity or compressibility. Surprisingly, the influence of the concentration of the protein on these quantities and thus on the denaturation has almost not been taken into account, although it has an important impact.
We therefore want to study the cold denaturation of chosen proteins (myoglobin, yeast frataxin and bovine pancreatic ribonuclease A (RNase A) as well as micrococcal nuclease (SNase)) by first measuring the thermodynamic parameters by calorimetry (DSC) and densitometry and dynamical parameters by neutron scattering and Dynamic Light Scattering. The instruments for that are all available at the Institut Laue Langevin and the measurements request more or less time, so that it is possible to do parts of them in few days and others request more availability.
The student will acquire skills on sample preparation, making DSC, DLS, densitometry and neutron scattering measurements, data analysis, writing computer codes and presenting the results to the group.
Qualifications of the applicant
This two-year research project is well adapted to students following the Soft Matter and Biophysics 1st-year major of the master N2. Basic knowledge on biological systems (proteins, membranes) and their thermodynamical properties, as well as experience on computer codes (Python,…) can be helpful.
Publications
S. A. Hawley, Biochemistry, 1971, 10, 2436–2442.
L. Smeller, Biochim Biophys Acta, 2002, 1595, 11-29.
J. Peters, J. Marion, F. J. Becher, M. Trapp, T. Gutberlet, D. J. Bicout and T. Heimburg, Sci Rep, 2017, 7, 15339
Published on September 10, 2021
Updated on March 14, 2022
Updated on March 14, 2022
