Matt Calabrese
From WikidChem
Matt is a graduate student in the Miranker Lab .
Research
Under normal conditions in vivo, proteins possess functions, which are dictated, in part, by their unique native fold. In the clinical amyloidoses, changes in native structure or in the folding pathway leading to this structure initiate pathological aggregation. To study the mechanism of amyloid formation, I work on the protein Beta-2 microglobulin (B2m) which is both a model system and a clinically relevant syste (as B2m is involved in the condition termed Dialysis-Related-Amyloidosis). My work seeks to understand the early steps in the amyloid formation pathway through analysis of early oligomeric intermediates. The principal techniques I employ include structural studies (via Xray crystallography), mutagenesis, and kinetic studies (via fluorescent probes).
