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| Rui M. M. Brito. |
| Group Leader |
| Assistant Professor |
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Ph. |
+351 239 854 451 |
| Fax |
+351 239 827 703 |
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| Group Research |
The research team of the Structural and Computational Biology group at CNC is formed by biochemists, chemists, molecular biophysicists and bioinformaticians, and has a track record in the fields of NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), CD (circular dichroism), fluorescence and computer simulations to study protein structure, stability, folding and aggregation, and protein-ligand interactions.
The group is strategically focused on the use of experimental and computational methodologies to study the molecular basis of human and animal disorders, in particular amyloid diseases. Combining the reach of experimental and computational methodologies, the group has been working on the detailed characterization of the molecular species and mechanisms involved on the initial stages of amyloid formation by the protein Transthyretin (TTR), the protein responsible for such pathologies as Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy (FAP), Familial Amyloid Cardiomyopathy (FAC), and Senile Systemic Amyloidosis (SSA). More recently, and based on the acquired knowledge, a significant effort is being made in the area of virtual screening and rational design of inhibitors of TTR amyloidosis with the goal of developing new therapeutic agents, which the group expects to extend to other amyloid diseases.
Additionally, the group is also working on the structural modelling of viral proteins with the goal of developing new anti-viral agents, in particular against retroviruses.
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| Research Highlights |
1. Characterization of the molecular mechanisms of amyloid formation by the protein transthyretin
2. Rational design of inhibitors of amyloid formation
3. Structural modelling of viral proteins and rational design of new anti-viral agents
4. Development of a public open platform to share and analyse protein folding and unfolding simulations, the P-found system (http://www.p-found.org).
5. Development of new data mining tools for the analysis of multiple protein folding and unfolding simulations.
6. Development of a volunteer computing platform for the Iberian Peninsula (http://www.ibercivis.pt)
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| Collaborations with UC researchers |
The group maintains collaborations with an extensive list of UC researchers, but more closely with:
• Prof. Luís Arnaut and Dr. Carlos Serpa (Photo-Acoustic Calorimetry; FCTUC/DQuim)
• Prof. Teresa Pinho e Melo (Chemical Synthesis; FCTUC/DQuim)
• Prof. Pedro Vieira Alberto (High Performance Computing; FCTUC/DFis)
• Dr. Cláudia Pereira (Amyloid; CNC)
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| Collaborations outside the UC |
The group keeps regular collaborations with several international laboratories, which are periodically visited by group members. Current collaborators include:
• Prof. Sheena Radford (Amyloid; Mass spectrometry), The Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology, University of Leeds, UK
• Prof. Werner Dubitzky (Bioinformatics), School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Ulster.
• Dr. Richard M. Jackson (Structural Bioinformatics), Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Leeds, UK
• Dr. Christina Redfield (Solution NMR), University of Oxford, UK.
• Dr. Adrián Velázquez Campoy (Microcalorimetry), Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos (BIFI), Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
• Prof. Alfonso Tarancon Lafita (Distributed Computing; Volunteer Computing), Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos (BIFI), Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain
• Prof. Ana Margarida Damas (Amyloid), IBMC – Institute for Molecular and Celular Biology, University of Porto, Portugal
• Prof. Maria João Saraiva (Amyloid), IBMC – Institute for Molecular and Celular Biology, University of Porto, Portugal
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| Group members |
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| Selected Publications |
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