Alderson Lab
We are interested in intrinsically disordered protein regions and their roles in fundamental biological processes, with a focus on protein homeostasis and cell death. Our group combines experimental and computational approaches, including NMR spectroscopy, cryo-EM, structural bioinformatics, and AI-based methods for protein structure prediction.
We are interested in intrinsically disordered protein regions and their roles in fundamental biological processes, with a focus on protein homeostasis and cell death. Our group combines experimental and computational approaches, including NMR spectroscopy, cryo-EM, structural bioinformatics, and AI-based protein structure prediction methods.
About
The Alderson Lab aims to understand how proteins in the heat shock and cell death pathways sense and react to stress. Many components of these pathways oligomerize and contain intrinsically disordered regions that lack stable structures. We leverage an integrative structural biology approach that combines NMR spectroscopy, cryo-EM, and other biophysical techniques to characterize these dynamic complexes. In addition, we deploy AI-based protein structure prediction methods, with recent applications focusing on proteome-level structural bioinformatics. Ultimately, we aim to uncover the mechanisms that govern protein homeostasis and cell death, the dysregulation of which is implicated in diseases such as cancer and neurodegeneration. We seek to leverage our structural insights to identify new targets and molecular interfaces for therapeutic intervention.
Group members
Publications
See all2023 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
Systematic identification of conditionally folded intrinsically disordered regions by AlphaFold2
2023 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.
Activation of caspase-9 on the apoptosome as studied by methyl-TROSY NMR
2021 Cell
NMR spectroscopy captures the essential role of dynamics in regulating biomolecular function
2019 Nat. Commun.
Local unfolding of the HSP27 monomer regulates chaperone activity
