Welcome to the public doctoral defence of Dmitrii Federov on Friday May 3rd at Aalto University.
Title of the thesis: Analytical ultracentrifugation as a tool to understand interactions in biomolecular materials
Opponent: Professor Kerstin Blank, Johannes Kepler University, Institute of Experimental Physics, Austria
Custos: Professor Markus Linder, Aalto University School of Chemical Engineering
Date:Â Friday 3.5.2024 at 12
Where: Aalto University, Kemistintie 1, Lecture hall KE2 and online.
Molecular interactions in bio-inspired materials: why are they important and how to study them
Functional, sustainable, renewable bio-based materials with good mechanical properties have been the focus of research and industrial interests in recent years. One of the most promising representatives is spider silk or rather its artificial analogues created by manipulation of amino acids protein sequence. The fibers of native and artificial spider silk are formed on the basis of triblock proteins. Rational design of protein constructs requires a deep understanding of inter-molecular interactions, especially when it comes to creating biomaterials. Moreover, such an understanding can lead to improved properties or expand the scope of application. In this work, we expand our understanding of inter-molecular interactions using analytical ultracentrifugation as a main research tool. The various spider silk protein constructs were used as the main focus of the study. This work devoted to certain gaps in the understanding of protein interactions at the molecular level, how they affect intermediate states such as liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), shows the importance of understanding the interactions, and also demonstrates the capabilities of Analytical Ultracentrifugation (AUC) in combination with other techniques for material science application.
The electronic version of the thesis can be found at: https://www.aalto.fi/en/events/public-defence-in-biotechnology-msc-tech-dmitrii-fedorov