BBB seminar
Markus Miettinen from the University of Bergen will give a talk entitled “High-fidelity biomolecular modelling”.
Position: Research Group Leader at Computational Biology Unit / Associate Professor at Department of Chemistry.
Research field: Computational structural biology of intrinsically disordered biomolecular systems.
Main achievements: EMBO Long Term Fellow, VolkswagenStiftung Post-doctoral Fellow. Cofounder of the NMRlipids Project.
Seminar focus: How to turn molecular dynamics simulations into a veritable Å-resolution microscope.
Thursday, December 1, 14:30
BBB seminar
Antonino Cattaneo from Scuola Normale Superior, Pisa, Italy, will give a talk entitled “An intrabody platform for conformational-selective and post-translational-specific interference in neurodegeneration”.
Position: Professor of Physiology at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, and President of the Levi-Montalcini European Brain Research Institute in Roma.
Research field: Neurotrophins, Alzheimers’s disease, recombinant antibodies
Main achievements: Cattaneo pioneered protein interference with antibody genes and by this approach established a new neurodegeneration mechanism, whereby deficits in proNGF/NGF signaling in the adult brain induce a progressive neurodegeneration that phenocopies Alzheimer’s disease, targeting microglia. This underpins innovative therapeutic approaches for AD currently under development towards clinical testing: painless NGF. His antibody technologies led to the demonstration of conformation-selective interference against intracellular Ab oligomers in Alzheimer’s human neurons and mice, that is being developed as a gene therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. He established Synactive, a new method for the activity-dependent local expression of reporter and actuator proteins (including chemo-and optogenetic probes) at potentiated synapses in vivo and is using it to study synaptic memory engrams in physiology and pathology.
Thursday, December 8, 14:30