Prof. Tuomas Knowles, Department of Chemistry, Cambridge.

This talk describes our efforts at elucidating the physical principles that control the self-assembly of protein molecules into fibrillar structures. Such assemblies are involved in biological function and malfunction, and are commonly held together with extended beta sheets when they are known as amyloid fibrils. These species were first discovered in the context of protein aggregation diseases. It has recently become apparent, however, that they also possess a multitude of functional roles in nature. Inspired by these natural roles of protein fibrillar materials, we have also focused our efforts into tailoring the self assembly of peptide and proteins to generate artificial functional materials.

This seminar will be followed by tea, coffee, and biscuits at 4pm in the tearoom.

View the seminar series on Talks.cam - http://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/98965