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Seminario de la Fundación Medina: "Bacterial Prions: From fundamentals to biotools for One Health"

Posted on2025 april

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The Medina Foundation Organized by a seminar by Dr. Rafael Giraldo, research professor at the National Biotechnology Center – CSIC and current president of the SEM, who will give a talk entitled "Bacterial Prions: From fundamentals to biotools for One Health”.

Event details:

  • Date: May 9, 2025
  • Time: 12:30 - 13:30, followed by a small appetizer
  • Place: Assembly Hall, Medina Foundation, PTS Granada
  • Mode: Face -to -face (without registration) and retransmitted via zoom (prior registration necessary here)

More information on the website of the Medina Foundation.

Abstract: Prions are proteins with at least two alternative conformations, one of them soluble while the other is a self-templated amyloid aggregate, which is vertically (epigenetically) propagated with cell division and, in some cases, also horizontally transmissible between cells (infectious). In prion proteins, the native and the amyloid conformations have either distinctive functions or the amyloid loses function gaining cytotoxicity. Increasingly found in organisms across the whole Tree of Life, prions arguably are among the most fascinating biological entities by being involved in adaptative response to environmental challenges or in triggering neurodegenerative and systemic amyloid diseases.

Starting from the seminal finding that the WH1 domain in a bacterial _protein (RepA) builds functional amyloids to negatively control plasmid replication, we have implemented their use in Synthetic Biology applications including nanosensors for amyloid aggregation and a biosafe minimal model of an intracellular generic amyloid disease, which provides insight on the principles of prion propagation.

We are currently engaged in: A) Exploring the prion-like behaviour of WH1 domains in Rep proteins from plasmids of the prevalent phytopathogen _Xylella fastidiosa_, paving the way to their possible use in the containment of pathogenic bacteria. B) Engineering an outer membrane porin (OmpF) that enables bacteria to capture and degrade disease-relevant extracellular amyloids present in gut microbiota, which are potential triggers for neurodegeneration, or infectious prions persistent in natural environments such as soils.

 

For more information, do not hesitate to contact us through info@medinaandalucia.es.

 

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