Lukasz A. Joachimiak

I am an early stage investigator with an unusual combined training in computational structural biology, biophysics, biochemistry and chaperone biology, which provides me with a unique perspective in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. I am developing chemical crosslinking and mass spectrometry methods to extract geometric structural information from protein assemblies and intracellular structures. In my laboratory, we leverage this information to understand structural differences in misfolded proteins (amyloids) that are associated with neurodegeneration. Uncovering the structural rules of protein folding that are associated with disease, and dissecting how specific cellular factors drive this process has important implications for understanding the mechanisms driving neurodegenerative disease pathology.