This snapshot volume is designed to provide a smooth entry into the field of protein folding. Presented in a concise manner, each section introduces key concepts while providing a brief overview of the relevant literature. Outlook subsections will pinpoint specific aspects related to emerging methodologies, concepts and trends.

Autorentext

Cláudio M. Gomes is Associate Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Faculty of Sciences (DQB-FCUL), University of Lisbon, where he heads the 'Protein Folding and Misfolding Laboratory' within BioISI - Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute. He is a Gulbenkian Ph.D. program in Biology and Medicine alumni, and he has obtained is PhD (1999) and Habilitation (2013) in Biochemistry at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He is an expert on structural biology, biochemistry and biophysics of protein stability, folding and misfolding, with +110 articles published (h-index 26). His current interests focus on mechanisms of protein aggregation in the context of complex biomedical problems such as those arising in Alzheimer's neurodegeneration. Patrícia F.N. Faísca is Assistant Professor of Physics at the Physics Department of the Faculty of Sciences (DF-FCUL), University of Lisbon, and principal investigator at BioISI Biosystems and Integrative Sciences Institute. She received her PhD (Physics) in 2002 at the University of Warwick (UK), as part of the Gulbenkian PhD Program in Biology and Medicine. She has a broad interdisciplinary education covering Physics, Biology and Mathematics. Her research on computational biophysics is based on the use of molecular simulations, especially of coarse-grained models. Her current research interests focus on the folding of knotted proteins, and on protein misfolding and aggregation in a disease-related context.

Inhalt

Protein Structure: How is structure maintained?.- Protein Folding: Why is structure acquired?.- Folding Kinetics and Mechanisms: How is structure acquired?.- Protein Misfolding: Why proteins misbehave?.- Methods for Protein Folding.