Structural Study of Viral Membrane Proteins and Method Development using Solution-NMR Spectroscopy

The power of solution NMR spectroscopy lies in its versatility. Our group focuses on two major areas of research involving solution NMR: Solving structure of viral membrane proteins and novel method development. First part of this thesis will focus on elucidating the solution NMR structure of two lipid-protein complexes: Transmembrane domain of InfluenzaA hemagglutinin and C-terminal domain of InfluenzaA Matrix Protein1; in presence of lipids. A combination of different biophysical methods and NMR provided insight into the membrane interaction and structure-function relationship of these systems. The second part will focus on developing a novel, affordable and stable bicelle system for structural study of membrane proteins. Our study shows that these bicelles are comparable to the most popular DMPC/DHPC bicelles in terms of morphology, relaxation properties and interaction with membrane proteins.