At the Department of Biochemistry (University of Zürich) we have an
immediate opening for a PhD student working in the field of protein
engineering and structural biology. The successful candidate will joint
a multidisciplinary team of scientists from combinatorial biochemistry
and protein engineering (Prof. A. Plückthun), molecular dynamics (Prof.
A. Caflisch), NMR spectroscopy (Prof. O. Zerbe) and X-ray
crystallography (PD P. Mittl). It is the goal of this joined project to
develop a toolbox of peptide recognition modules (on the basis of the
Armadillo repeat) which can be assembled on a rational basis to
recognize any extended peptide with a given sequence. Several scaffolds
of binding modules have already been developed but it will be the goal
of this PhD thesis to design and synthesize artificial Armadillo-repeat
proteins that can be crystallized with the cognate polypeptides.
Experience (at the master-level) in structure-based planning of mutants,
general molecular biology tools, protein expression and purification is
mandatory and knowledge of protein X-ray crystallography would be an
asset. The project will involve mutant design and structure
determination by X-ray crystallography. For further information, please
consult the following publications or send an e-mail to either
mi...@bioc.uzh.ch or plueckt...@bioc.uzh.ch.
Designed Armadillo repeat proteins: library generation, characterization
and selection of peptide binders with high specificity. Varadamsetty G,
Tremmel D, Hansen S, Parmeggiani F, Plückthun A.J Mol Biol. 2012; 424:68-87
Optimization of designed armadillo repeat proteins by molecular dynamics
simulations and NMR spectroscopy. Alfarano P, Varadamsetty G, Ewald C,
Parmeggiani F, Pellarin R, Zerbe O, Plückthun A, Caflisch A. Protein
Sci. 2012; 21:1298-314
Structure-based optimization of designed Armadillo-repeat proteins.
Madhurantakam C, Varadamsetty G, Grütter MG, Plückthun A, Mittl PR.
Protein Sci. 2012;21:1015-28
Designed armadillo repeat proteins as general peptide-binding scaffolds:
consensus design and computational optimization of the hydrophobic core.
Parmeggiani F, Pellarin R, Larsen AP, Varadamsetty G, Stumpp MT, Zerbe
O, Caflisch A, Plückthun A.J Mol Biol. 2008 ;376:1282-304
