Wei Qiang
Binghamton University, NY·Biophysics
One explanation for how Alzheimer's disease (AD) damages the brain is that beta-amyloid (Aβ), a small protein fragment, clumps together and punches holes in the membranes of nerve cells. Membranes are the fatty outer layers that hold each cell together.
- Fields
Biophysics
Chemistry
Biochemistry
- Topics
Alzheimer's disease
beta-amyloid
Aβ
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Test proposed mechanistic models of local membrane leakage caused by on-pathway beta-amyloid fibril intermediates in liposomes, using solid-state NMR and signal-enhancing dynamic nuclear polarization.
- Determine the structures, lipid dynamics and Aβ–lipid contacts of off-pathway beta-amyloid oligomers that fragment model membranes, using time-resolved solid-state NMR.
- Develop in-cell phosphorus-31 and DNP-assisted solid-state NMR in neuronal cell lines, combined with cell imaging and viability assays, to identify membrane-damaging beta-amyloid intermediates in cells.
More about the research
Studying this at the molecular level is hard because the clumps vary widely in form and the most damaging intermediate forms are short-lived and rare. This project uses solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR), a technique that reveals the atomic structure of molecules that are not dissolved in solution, to see how Aβ clumps interact with membranes.
Why it matters
Knowing exactly how beta-amyloid clumps damage neuronal membranes could clarify how both the aggregates and the cell membrane contribute to Alzheimer's disease. This basic structural understanding may eventually inform strategies that target the most harmful membrane-disrupting forms of beta-amyloid.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Galia Debelouchina
University of California-San Diego, CA·Biophysics
Determine how heterochromatin protein 1 (HP1), a protein family central to gene silencing, interacts with itself, with chromatin and with partner proteins to set the material properties of heterochromatin compartments.
Chad Rienstra
University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI·Biophysics
Develop micro-rotor packing and sample handling tools for ultra-fast magic-angle spinning (MAS), above 100 kHz in rotors under 1 mm wide, and benchmark NMR performed under magnetic field gradients.
David Eisenberg
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Biochemistry
Discover safe Tau disaggregants through repeated cycles of solving structures of Alzheimer's brain Tau fibrils bound to compounds and screening new compounds that fit the drug-binding site.
The school
Binghamton University: 14 labs on PI Pages, $161M a year on research, 132 research doctorates a year.
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