Welcome to a seminar with ChemLife guest researcher Petri Ursula, University of Bergen!
Title: The self-assembling proteolipid structure of myelin – what can photons, neutrons, electrons, and imagination tell us?
Speaker: Petri Kursula, Professor, University of Bergen, Norway
When:Thursday 13 March 2025, 15:00–16:00 plus time for questions and mingle
Where: LINXS, The Loop, Rydbergs torg 4, 224 84 Lund, with digital participation possibility (Zoom). Registered participants (online-only) will receive a Zoom link before the event.
Abstract
Myelin is a fascinating (supra)molecular assembly formed of lipid and protein, being crucial for rapid conduction of nerve impulses. The tightly packed proteolipid membrane multilayer, the myelin sheath, is a unique biomolecular structure relevant for normal nervous system function and disease. Our research focuses on several of the myelin peripheral or integral membrane proteins that apparently share a common function: stacking lipid bilayers into tight, insulating multilayers. I will share our recent data on the molecular organisation of myelin, highlighting the importance of diverse methods and large-scale infrastructures for our line of study. I will touch upon current and future plans of going beyond our current knowledge in understanding myelin at the molecular level, using a multidisciplinary approach. In addition to a high-resolution description of structure and dynamics in myelin, we wish to tackle even somewhat exotic and unprecedented ideas in the fields of protein-lipid interactions and large, heterogeneous molecular complexes. Multidisciplinarity and international collaborations will be crucial for these ambitions.
Bio
Petri Kursula is a structural biologist with broad interests in protein structure, dynamics, and function. His main research focus concerns proteins that are important for forming the multilayered myelin proteolipid membrane in the nervous system. A complementary set of structural biology and biophysical methods are being used in the project, involving the use of photons, neutrons, and electrons – as well as a line of complementary techniques – to study myelin structure. He got his PhD from the University of Oulu (Finland) in 2000, and carried out three post-doctoral stays, at Biocenter Oulu, EMBL Hamburg, and the Karolinska Institute. In 2006, he was nominated Academy Research Fellow by the Academy of Finland, and since then, he has led his own research group at the University of Oulu, University of Hamburg/DESY synchrotron, and now at the University of Bergen. He is a full professor since 2014 and director of the BiSS core facility at the University of Bergen. In addition, he holds a professorship at the University of Oulu and is currently a guest scientist at LINXS in Lund.
Contact: Please contact shandana.mufti@linxs.lu.se for any practical questions.
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