NWO groot consortium grant to Liesbeth Veenhoff (+ cross disciplinary team Steven Bergink and Harm Kampinga)

Liesbeth Veenhoff received the NWO groot consortium grant and will study the ‘Guardians of Protein Disorder’ with a cross disciplinary team of cell biologists, Steven Bergink and Harm Kampinga (UMCG), and physicists, Patrick Onck (ZIAM) and Cees Dekker (TuDelft).

Guardians of protein disorder
Intrinsically disordered proteins are proteins that lack persistent structure. They fulfil essential functions in cells, but are also involved in aggregation pathologies such as Parkinson’s disease and ALS. Intrinsically disordered proteins can exist in different phases, such as a liquid droplet, a gel or a more rigid form, an aggregate. The goal of this research is to reveal what mechanisms exist to ensure the intrinsically disordered proteins exist in the right phase state to perform their biological function and to prevent disease. By studying how these transitions are guarded, we think we will contribute to a better understanding of aggregation pathologies.