NUS Graduate School for Integrative Sciences and Engineering (NGS)

Open Position

Chemistry, Chemical Biology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Imaging

Ben Davis (Oxford) and Martin Lear (NUS): Understanding and Controlling Protein Anchoring in Health and in Parasite Disease

 

The biological roles of carbohydrates and lipids have often been viewed as simple ones: as sources of energy, e.g., glucose, fats, or as polymeric building materials, e.g., chitin in crab shells, cellulose in wood, lipid membranes. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that glycolipids, carbohydrates in small clusters, and oligosaccharides act as markers in important recognition processes such as microbial infection, cancer metastasis and cellular adhesion in inflammation, in addition to many intracellular communication events. Their remarkable structural diversity means that glycolipids can mediate highly specific and therefore complex processes.

 

The post-translational modifications of proteins by glycolipids is believed to exquisitely modulate the activity of proteins in all higher organisms. In humans a high proportion of all cell surface proteins are modified in this way but we currently have little understanding of their precise role.

 

Working together to combine synthetic molecular assembly of glycolipid motifs with engineered proteins, the Lear and Davis groups are aiming to construct the first fully synthetic and functional protein models of 'anchored-proteins'. This will use methods in Chemistry, Chemical Biology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology and Imaging to understand the role of this fundamental process in healthy and diseased organisms. Together this work might also lead to novel approaches to both understand, diagnose and treat diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis.