Professor Ming-Dong Dong Visited the School
 

    Professor Mingdong Dong visited Tianjin University and LIMB on April 22nd, 2019 and gave a lecture on "Understanding of the abnormal protein aggregation". The abnormal protein aggregation is responsible for several highly-debilitating neurodegenerative disorders which remains currently incurable, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. On the other hand, biomaterials inspired by amyloids are successfully employed in a large selection of functional materials. Delving into amyloid self-assembly is therefore highly relevant for both medical and engineering fields. Thus it is of utmost importance to reveal the detailed structure of the amyloid protein aggregates.

    Professor Dong showed how a short fragment of the pathogenic proteins can self-assembling into a variety of nanostructures. The driving force behind these advanced nanomaterials involves weak non-covalent interations. Then Professor Dong discussed each of the interactions in relation to self-assembly, which may lead to the construction of more advanced polypeptide nanostructures for future applications. Professor Sun and the LIMB members discussed with Professor Dong about possible collaborations in protein science and engineering. The academic communication would be beneficial to the scientific research in LIMB.