Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly

The Laboratory of Dynamics of Macromolecular Assembly develops biophysical methods to study protein interactions and the assembly of multi-protein complexes. Hallmarks of multi-protein complexes are multi-valent interactions and cooperativity. In the molecular machinery of cellular processes, these constitute ubiquitous mechanisms for the integration and transfer of information. Therefore, our focus is on the development of approaches for multi-component systems where several different macromolecular components interact to allow association and dissociation of different co-existing complexes in different states. We are interested in the characterization of the number of assembly states, and their size, shape, and the interaction energetics. Complementary to crystallographic techniques, such solution interaction studies can provide information on the assembly principles of structurally polymorph multi-protein complexes. Most recently we have focused on the application of these techniques to the study of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein and its interactions in viral assembly, and on the analysis of the mutational landscape to gain insight in the nucleocapsid structure, function, and evolution.