Experimental Protein Dynamics and its Role in Predicting Protein Function

Abstract

By studying proteins we learn about the processes that control life, such as important procedures in the body, diseases and eventually find more targeted cures for many diseases.

Proteins are constantly being built up and decomposed in living organisms. Many proteins move and interact with other proteins or small molecules in the cell. They can for example have enzymatic functions where they catalyze a biochemical reaction, or they can be situated in the cell membrane controlling the flow of smaller molecules. Some proteins are involved in several different processes depending on with which proteins they interact. By investigating the dynamics and interactions of proteins we can learn more about their function.

In this work I have been involved in several project with focus on method development. X-ray crystallography diffraction experiments were performed at the short pulse facility beamline FemtoMAX at MAXIV, with and without effect of terahertz radiation. We found and investigated an interesting connection between survivin and PRC2, which are both involved in several diseases. Bayesian machine learning methods were implemented in the analysis of MST data.