Contact: Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Leading researchers from around the world are gathering at the MagLab to discuss the latest discoveries in a rapidly growing area of study—lipid nanodiscs. The super-small discs have emerged as a powerful and versatile platform for biomedical research.
“These discs have many promising applications. They still are being developed and exponentially growing,” said Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, MagLab researcher and biomedical engineering professor in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. He has organized the lab’s first-ever symposium on lipid nanodiscs.
“We are inviting all the experts,” Ramamoorthy said.
The discs, bioengineered from a combination of fatty molecules called lipids and “detergent-like” molecules (proteins or peptides or synthetic polymers or small molecules), are about 10,000 times smaller than a human hair. The tiny structures can be used to hold a fragile cell membrane protein. Membrane proteins are critical for biological processes, serving as channels to control what enters and leaves a cell and as sensors to transmit chemical signals. But scientists have struggled to study their functions because the membrane proteins are so fragile. That’s where the nanodisc comes in as a platform. The lipids that make up the disc mimic a cell membrane, providing a stable environment for the proteins.
You can think of the disc structure like a piece of sushi. The membrane protein sits at the center, like the sushi meat. It’s surrounded by the lipids, like the rice surrounds the meat. And the piece is all held together by a scaffold (made up of proteins or peptides or synthetic polymers or small molecules), like the belt of seaweed around the sushi.
Ramamoorthy has been working on lipid nanodiscs for years with various applications.
Using high-field nuclear magnetic resonance at the MagLab, his areas of research include the discs’ potential for delivering drugs to treat human diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and cancer.
“A targeted drug delivery, either to the brain or to the heart or to cancer cells, and so on,” Ramamoorthy said.
The MagLab symposium will feature the latest advances in designing, building, and utilizing nanodiscs, along with their growing importance in drug delivery-- as carriers for molecules known as peptide assemblies that trigger cell activity, and to transport biologics-- medicines made from living organisms.
The inaugural MagLab Symposium on Lipid Nanodiscs is set for April 30 and May 1 at the lab’s Tallahassee headquarters. Experts in biomedical engineering, biophysics, structural biology, chemistry, and pharmaceutical science from around the world will present their latest research.
“This provides an opportunity for people to network and exchange their findings. It's normally impossible to meet this set of people in any one of the major conferences. So, bringing them under one umbrella, we can go in-depth to explore the hidden treasure in this nano-size biomedical technology,” said Ramamoorthy. “So many things are possible in this area of study.”
