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Eva Chi, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, Wins NSF CAREER Award

March 26, 2012

Dr. Eva Chi, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Nuclear Engineering, recently won an NSF CAREER Award to further her research in drug deliveries for Alzheimer's disease.

The research is titled "Interface-induced misfolding and aggregation of intrinsically disordered proteins." Despite the implication of intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) in a number of human diseases, the aggregation mechanism of IDP by which the disease develops remains poorly understood. Chi will work to gain a fundamental understanding of how interfaces in the cellular environment can affect the misfolding and aggregation of IDPs.

She will investigate the aggregation of two IDPs implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the amyloid-b peptide and the tau protein. Successful completion of the proposed research will advance current understanding of not only the interfacial effects on the structural dynamics of an important class of proteins, but also of the mechanism and thermodynamic driving forces underlying the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases.

:: more research by Eva Chi