Dr. Ivanova is a postdoctoral researcher in the
laboratory
of Prof. D.
Eisenberg at UCLA.
Summary: The major focus of my
research is to study protein unfolding and aggregation to understand
the nature
of diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s with applications for
design of
new therapeutic and novel biomaterials.
In the living cells, each protein
exists in a stable three dimensional fold essential for its function.
Stress
conditions or failure to correctly fold produces inactive and misfolded
proteins. Misfolded proteins can accumulate in large assemblies inside
or
outside the living cells. Such deposits of misfolded proteins
(amyloids) are
found in more than thirty diseases, such as Parkinson’s, Lou Gehrig's
and Alzheimer’s .
Currently, Dr. Ivanova is interested
in understanding the molecular organization of protein molecules in
amyloid
assemblies. In the laboratory of Prof D. Eisenberg, Dr. Ivanova was one
of the
pioneers who developed structural methods which helped to view short
segments
of proteins in their misfolded state. At present, Dr. Ivanova also
works on
developing systems which reflect the conditions triggering the
conversion of the
proteins into misfolded state. The knowledge about the nature of
amyloid assemblies
can be used to design therapeutics for diseases such as Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s currently affecting a large group of the aging
population.
In nature the amyloid assemblies
are not always connected to diseases. There is accumulating evidence
that amyloids
have normal biological functions in organisms, such as bacteria, fungi,
insects
and mammals. Thus studying the functional side of the amyloid
assemblies can
help understanding the evolutionary origin of these complex protein
assemblies. In addition amyloids are very rigid and mechanically
stable. These
properties together with biological functionalities can be used to
utilize
amyloids as novel nanomaterials and biomatrials.