Scientific Staff
Adabella van der Zand
Postdoctoral researchers
I aim to discover the mode of action of novel corrector drugs developed to rescue cell surface function of CFTR and gain more insight into how mutations and cellular factors affect protein folding.
CFTR folds in the ER and requires an orchestrated action of chaperone networks in the ER lumen, the ER membrane, and cytosol. I am interested in understanding how this cellular machinery assists CFTR folding, with focus on NBD1 domain, where the most common disease-causing mutation resides.
I am investigating how does the regulation of translation processes (e.g. RNA motifs, translation speed control) influence CFTR folding and, consequently, CFTR functioning.
My project aims to identify the key players in the transport and recycling of CFTR protein at the plasma membrane by employing biochemical and fluorescence (immune) imaging techniques.
PhD candidates
My aim is to identify intramembrane interaction partners of CFTR and how these are involved in chaperoning and quality control of folding of the transmembrane region of CFTR.
Laura Tadé
+31 30 253 3752
l.tade@uu.nl
Office: O.709
I want to know whether CFTR is only active at the cell surface or also in other cell compartments and when/where it acquires the structure that allows its function.
Marcel van Willigen
+31 30 253 4105
m.vanwilligen@uu.nl
Office: O.707
My research focuses on investigating CFTR folding using Cystic Fibrosis patient mutations, providing insights into how wild-type protein folds and how the respective patient mutants misfold.
The aim of my research is to determine for each CFTR2 disease-causing mutant to which available (pre)clinical drugs they respond at the CFTR protein level.
My project investigates how CFTR transmembrane domains assemble, and see how chaperones help with the assembly of these transmembrane domains with each other and nucleotide binding domains.
Technicians
I work on elucidating the mode of action of compounds that affect CFTR folding, to understand mechanisms of these compounds and their potential benefits for Cystic Fibrosis patients.
I am interested in a set of small endoplasmic reticulum localized chaperones, called the canopy family and their role in proteins folding, B cell differentiation and antibody secretion.
I develop/modify analysis techniques to study protein folding of model oxidative proteins and folding factors, in vivo and in vitro by short and long radioactive metabolic labelling.
My project aims to investigate the correlation between translation rate and CFTR folding
Students
Guests
Maarten Egmond