Proteins play a vital role in almost all biological processes including gene expression, signalling, DNA replication, catalysis of metabolic reactions and cell division, to name but a few. Determining the structure of a particular protein can provide key insights to its mechanism of action, and importantly, the implications of any mutations in the protein structure. The interdisciplinary nature of the research at MOAC allows a set of diverse, yet complementary techniques to be used to investigate an equally broad range of proteins. Experimental biology and chemistry techniques such as x-ray crystallography, NMR and mass spectrometry can be coupled with simulation methods to give a more thorough view of a protein's structure and related function.

Some current MOAC PhD student projects in this area are listed below:

Analysis and modelling of clathrin assembly and disassembly processes

Exploration and Analysis of Penicillin Binding Proteins as synthetic tools and targets

Membrane proteins in their Natural Environment: Solid-state Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and Molecular Dynamics Simulation for Determination of Structure and Dynamics

The mechanism of neurotoxicity of ring oligomers of amyloid proteins

Understanding the “Rules of Engagement” for Membrane Protein Folding: Biophysical and Computational Approaches for Determination of Structure and Dynamics