Shaping proteins to understand chaperone-related diseases
(PHYSorg.com Chemistry)

Chaperones are a set of proteins that are specialised to assist proteins in the human body. They help proteins to fold to the right shape and protect them from adapting wrong shapes. The research group of Alireza Mashaghi, assistant professor and principal investigator at LACDR, investigates these structures. Vahid Satarifard, graduate student in the research group: `More than fifty diseases have been identified as being associated with protein misfolding. Many of them are highly devastating and increasingly prevalent.` In proteopathic diseases, proteins can fold in the wrong way, becoming structurally abnormal. This causes them to become toxic or lose their normal function.