Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering

Speaker: Peter Chung, Ph.D., Robert D. Beyer Early Career Chair in the Natural Sciences and an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy University of Southern California

Talk Title: Polymers and Parkinsons: Elucidating Protein Function through Soft Matter Paradigms and Techniques

Abstract: Despite being unequivocally linked to Parkinson’s disease, the function of alpha-synuclein remains unclear beyond transiently binding to the lipid membrane of synaptic vesicles (organelles filled with neurotransmitters). This is due, in part, to its intrinsically disordered nature; alpha-synuclein does not fold into a globular structure and instead behaves much like a biopolymer. While precluding traditional characterization methods, this makes alpha-synuclein incredibly amenable to investigation via a polymer physics framework. First, through purpose-designed membrane nanoparticles and advanced synchrotron X-ray methods I will demonstrate that alpha-synuclein binds to and collectively works to sterically-stabilize membrane surfaces, a biological manifestation of polyelectrolyte-stabilized colloids. I will then reconcile observed transient binding to synaptic vesicles by establishing that alpha-synuclein preferentially binds to osmotically-stressed membranes (a proxy for neurotransmitter-filled synaptic vesicles), a newly discovered biophysical function by which alpha-synuclein interrogates organelle contents. Utilizing these insights, I will contextualize alpha-synuclein as a guidepost that spatiotemporally directs non-equilibrium

Biography: Peter Chung is the Robert D. Beyer Early Career Chair in the Natural Sciences and an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on the intersection of intrinsically disordered proteins (especially those unequivocally linked to neurodegenerative disease) and soft matter physics, with the hope of understanding emergent phenomena associated with these proteins and repurposing them for basic science research and novel therapeutic approaches. Previously he was a Kadanoff-Rice Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago and earned his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara

Host: Eunji Chung

Location: Olin Hall of Engineering (OHE) - 100 B

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Carla Stanard