Dr Thomas Jahn

Interests

The hallmark of numerous neurodegenerative disorders is the accumulation of microscopic protein deposits such as the amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's Disease and the Lewy Bodies of Parkinson's Disease. My research is focused on understanding the relationship between the protein sequence, its aggregation characteristics and the subsequent disease pathogenesis. I am currently focusing on alpha-synuclein, whose assembly is implicated in the etiology of Parkinson's Disease, and explore its aggregation behavior computationally, in in vitro experiments as well as in a simple model organism, the fruit fly. A particular aim will be to understand the extent to which intrinsic and cellular factors drive protein aggregation and to pinpoint specific routes that can be taken to predict and prevent this phenomenon.

Research Focus

Equipment

Behavioural analysis

Cell culture

Computational modelling

Confocal microscopy

Drosophila

Fluorescence microscopy

Immunohistochemistry

Microscopy

Protein chemistry

Protein purification

Recombinant protein expression

Spectroscopy