UCL Associate Professor of Biological and Soft Matter Physics
IST Austria
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Computational physical biology
Research synopsis
We are an interdisciplinary and interactive research group based in UCL LMCB and Department of Physics and Astronomy. We bring together ideas and tools from theoretical and computational physics and chemistry to develop fundamental understanding behind complex life processes.
Our research is centered around protein assembly in life and disease: how proteins create the macromolecular machinery of life, and how pathological protein aggregation involved in neurodegenerative disease occurs. We are particularly focused on cell reshaping and cutting by ESCRT filaments, protein assembly under chemical and mechanical gradients, and pathological amyloid aggregation. We develop minimal computer models, in a close collaboration with experimental colleagues, to explain and predict the molecular steps involved in these complex phenomena.
Selected publications
Pfitzner A-K, et al (2020). Sequential polymerization of ESCRT subunits drives membrane deformation and fission. Cell
Risa GT, et al (2020). The proteasome controls ESCRT-III-mediated cell division in an archaeon. Science, 369
Paraschiv A, et al (2020). Dynamic clustering regulates activity of mechanosensitive membrane channels. Phys Rev Lett, 124, 048102
Harker-Kirschneck L, et al (2019). Changes in ESCRT-III filament geometry drive membrane remodelling and fission in silico. BMC Biology 17, 1-8
Hafner AE, et al (2019). Minimal coarse-grained models for molecular self-organisation in biology. Curr. Op. Struct. Biol. 58, 43
Šarić A, et al (2016). Physical determinants of the self-replication of protein fibrils. Nature Physics 12, 874
Funders
Wellcome
European Research Council
Royal Society
EPSRC
Academy of Medical Sciences
Volkswagen Foundation
Research themes
Cytoskeleton
Polarity and cell shape
Membrane trafficking
Protein aggregation
Membrane remodelling
Technology
Biophysics
Computational biology
People
Johannes Krausser (Postdoc)
Ivan Palaia (Postdoc)
Xiuyun Sharon Jiang (Postdoc)
Alexandru Paraschiv (PhD student)
Lena Harker-Kirschneck (PhD student)
Joel Forster (PhD student)
Samo Curk (PhD student)
Christian Vanhille Campos (PhD student)
Miguel Amaral (PhD student)
Kevin Klein (PhD student)
Collaborators
Yanlan Mao (LMCB, UK)
Bart Hoogenboom (UCL LCN, UK)
Buzz Baum (MRC LMB, UK)
Tuomas Knowles (University of Cambridge, UK)
Daan Frenkel (University of Cambridge, UK)
Teuta Pilizota (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Patricia Bassereau (Institute Curie, France)
Ricardo Henriques (IGC, Portugal)
Aurelién Roux (University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Xiaolei Xu (Yale University, USA)