Sector of Amyloid Research, Vilnius University

Last week our PhD student, Rūta Sniečkutė, participated in the 3rd edition of #BrainMosaic24 conference in Leuven, Belgium. She presented a poster titled "The Impact of α-synuclein Aggregates Formed in Artificial Cerebrospinal Fluid on SH-SY5Y cells" The conference featured a diverse range of topics, from neurodegeneration to brain development. We are proud that Rūta had the opportunity to attend, share her research findings, and engage with leading experts in the field. #VilniusUniversity #LSC #Science

This week, our journey may have been shorter, but it was just as exciting. Our team of students participated in the 4th International Conference Baltic Biophysics Conference in Kaunas, Lithuania. Viktorija Karalkevičiūtė, Luka Skurdelytė, Justina Miknaitė from our sector along with Aistė Peštenytė from Dr. Mantas Šimėnas team at the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC) presented posters on diverse topics. These included S100A and β-microglobulin phase separation, bacterial CsgA protein aggregation and how one can use electron paramagnetic resonance to measure distances between proteins. A part of these studies was funded by the Research Council of Lithuania | Lietuvos mokslo taryba, agreements No. S-MIP-24-52 and S-PD-22-91. A big thank you to Vilnius University Life Sciences Center for covering the students' registration fees. #VU #LBFD #LSC #students #Kaunas #Biophysics

Darius Šulskis has started our Sector's trip season. He participated in the #ML4NGP Workshop on Single-Molecule FRET #smFRET of Non-globular with renowned scientists from Europe and the USA. A big thank you to #ML4NGP, iBB-Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences and #COSTactions for inviting and organizing an amazing workshop. Next month, more of our team members will be travelling around the world—stay tuned for even more exciting experiences!

It is time to share our news. First, we want to congratulate 🎊 our group researcher Mantas Žiaunys. He was awarded a grant from Research Council of Lithuania to study formation of heterogeneous droplets during liquid-liquid phase separation. In addition to this achievement, he has recently published two new articles: 1. S100A9 inhibits and redirects prion protein 89-230 fragment amyloid aggregation (https://lnkd.in/dZDA3trq) 2. Liquid–liquid phase separation of alpha-synuclein increases the structural variability of fibrils formed during amyloid aggregation (https://lnkd.in/dXFPGDpv) We are also pleased to share two articles from our successful collaborations with scientists from Latvia, Sweden, and Italy: 1. Pro-inflammatory protein S100A9 targeted by a natural molecule to prevent neurodegeneration onset (https://lnkd.in/d4j9kgNt) 2. Solid-state NMR backbone chemical shift assignments of α-synuclein amyloid fibrils at fast MAS regime (https://lnkd.in/dsTKzk92) #VU #LSC #ResearchNews #LMT #Neurodegeneration

Check out our new preprint titled "Diverse effects of fluorescent labels on alpha-synuclein condensate formation during liquid-liquid phase separation" https://lnkd.in/dvbxGJTf #LLPS, #vilniusuniversity, #lifesciencescenter #Research

We want to congratulate our graduated bachelor students from this year. Best of luck to Arūnė Jocytė, Gabija Dovidovičiūtė, Luka Skurdelytė, Aistė Skaisgirytė, Gertrūda Abariūtė, Justina Miknaitė! 🎉 ✨ 🎉

This week we (Vytautas Smirnovas, Andrius Sakalauskas, Darius Šulskis) are participating in ML4NGP second conference in Thessaloniki, Greece. Many thanks to the organizers and participants for the great atmosphere! #ML4NGP #conference #Science #Behindthescenes #VilniusUniversity #COST

We would like to share additional news from our sector: First, congratulations to everyone (Ieva Baronaitė, Darius Šulskis, Aurimas Kopustas, marijonas tutkus and Vytautas Smirnovas) on releasing the new paper about S100A8 and S100A9 proteins aggregation (https://lnkd.in/dXDcH6PY). Secondly, we have an open position for a summer student internship (https://lnkd.in/dYrNBmHA). It can be applied both by Lithuanian and abroad students. Finally, we have been slowly updating our website (https://lnkd.in/ddKtf2rR). There are still some bugs to iron out, but it is a big improvement. #ACS #LMT #VilniusUniversity

Today our students participated in The 67th International Scientific Conference for Students of Physics and Natural Sciences (in short OPEN READINGS 2024). Great posters from Kamilė Mikalauskaitė, Viktorija Karalkevičiūtė, Airidas Jonušas and Lukas Krasauskas. #OPENREADINGS #NFTMC #VilniusUniversity #Academia

This month, we are showing the work of Dominykas Veiveris. His project is about Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) phenomena, during which proteins form liquid droplets, followed by amyloid aggregation. LLPS is observed in neurodegenerative disorders, cancers and certain cases is related to protein functions in the cell nucleus. Watch below as alpha-synuclein, a protein linked to Parkinson's disease, undergoes LLPS. #LLPS #Science #LifeSciencesCenter #VilniusUniversity