Elizabeth Landrum

Contact Information:

Email: ecl20@pitt.edu

Education: Physics BA, Cornell University

Research Experience:
Undergraduate thesis work: I studied the macroscopic effects of pressure on protein crystals in an attempt to determine whether pressure acting on a protein crystal could denature the protein within the crystal, or have other important effects on the crystal lattice.

Summer internship in the Zhang lab: I worked on cloning and purifying a tagged protein for study with electron microscopy.

Research:
My work primarily focuses on the protein implicated in Alzheimer's Disease, amyloid-beta (or Abeta). This protein is known to form fibrillar aggregates which make up the plaques observed in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. My project will focus on gaining a better understanding of the structure of Abeta in fibrils of a range of morphologies. Previous work conducted by the lab has suggested that the structure of Abeta and the fibrils it produces are easily affected by changes in sequence and growth conditions. Knowing why and how this occurs will be help us to better understand how the disease works as well as providing us with a better understanding of protein structure in general, specifically that of proteins involved in amyloid fibrils.

PhD Advisor:
Ronald Wetzel