Recent Outreach Activities

We have studied the mobility of the multi-domain folding catalyst, protein disulphide-isomerase (PDI), by a coarse-graining approach based on flexibility. We analyse our simulations of yeast PDI (yPDI) using measures of backbone movement, relative positions and orientations of domains, and distances between functional sites. We find that there is interdomain flexibility at every interdomain junction but these show very different characteristics. The extent of interdomain flexibility is such that yPDI's two active sites can approach much more closely than is found in crystal structures — and indeed hinge motion to bring these sites into proximity is the lowest energy normal mode of motion of the protein. The flexibility predicted for yPDI (based on one structure) includes the other known conformation of yPDI and is consistent with (i) the mobility observed experimentally for mammalian PDI and (ii) molecular dynamics. We also observe intradomain flexibility and clear differences between the domains in their propensity for internal motion. Our results suggest that PDI flexibility enables it to interact with many different partner molecules of widely different sizes and shapes, and highlights considerable similarities of yPDI and mammalian PDI.

The 20th edition of the European White Dwarf Workshop was held at Warwick. The meeting covered the structure and evolution of white dwarfs, as well as a wide range of astrophysical problems in which white dwarfs play a central role, such as SN Ia progenitors, the local star formation history, and evolved planetary systems.

The Astronomy group has won a further four observing proposals on the Hubble Space Telescope in its latest round.