Effect of Organically Coated Gold Nanoparticles on Amyloid-β Oligomerization (Statistical Thermodyn
This summer I will be working as an undergraduate research assistant under Nicholas van der Munnik, a graduate student in Dr. Moss’ lab at the University of South Carolina Department of Chemical Engineering. The Moss Lab, as a whole, studies the chemical behavior of amyloid beta peptides, proteins that are crucially involved in the neural degeneration observed in Alzheimer’s disease. On the experimental side, Nick and I are researching how acid-coated gold nanoparticles (which are also being made by ChE grad students under Dr. Lauterbach) can inhibit the aggregation of those peptides. (The aggregation causes a bunch of problems and is what ends up causing zones of decreased function in the brain.)
We also are working with Dr. Uline to write a robust computer program that combines a lot of thermodynamics equations that use measured parameters like pH, charge density, and the molecules’ spatial location to simulate and determine their interactions with each other on the atomic level. Here’s the main Hemholtz free energy functional that looks very impressive:
In the lab, I perform purification assays and measure protein aggregation with and without nanoparticles present. I’m only now starting to work with the code of this project, but I’ve also been doing other computational work like making the (beautiful) rotating model of an amyloid-beta conformation below.