The Cellular Protein Chemistry section (CPC) consists of three research groups; that of Ineke Braakman & Peter van der Sluijs, that of Stefan Rüdiger, and that of Arnold Boersma. CPC is part of the Bijvoet Centre for Biomolecular Research and the Chemistry Department of Utrecht University.
Maintaining the natural shape of proteins is essential for life. Failure to do so may cause lethal, incurable diseases such as Cystic Fibrosis, Alzheimer, Parkinson, ALS, or cancer. Common to those diseases are fatal distortions in protein shape. Human life therefore depends on a defense system that maintains the shape of our proteins, the strongly regulated network of chaperones and folding enzymes. Research done at CPC focuses on the central question: “Why does this network fail in disease?” Our work is dedicated to the origin of protein failure diseases and the regulation and mechanisms of our natural defense systems.