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Co-Chair: Dani Ballesteros, PhD - University of Valencia, Spain
Co-Chair: Wim Wolkers, PhD - University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover
 Flexibility matters – Towards understanding how disordered LEA proteins shape the tolerance to water loss
Dr. Anja Thalhammer Project Leader, University of Potsdam
LEA proteins are accumulated by many organisms encountering periods of water deficiency during their life cycles. While it seems clear that LEA proteins are main players in establishing freezing, dehydration and desiccation tolerance by stabilizing cellular membranes and macromolecules like enzymes and nucleic acids, we only have vague concepts of how they achieve this on the molecular level. I will talk about how LEA proteins structurally react to the water availability of their environment and exist in an equilibrium of hydration driven secondary and quaternary structural ensembles and present recent progress in our understanding of their intricate structure-function relationship.
Bio: Anja is based at the Physical Biochemistry Department at the University of Potsdam, which she first joined in 2014, initially as a postdoctoral researcher, since 2017 as a project leader. Anja did her diploma and PhD under the supervision of Dr. Dirk Hincha at the Max Planck Institute of Plant Physiology at Potsdam. Being a biologist by training, Anja studies folding, self-association and environmental interactions of proteins and peptides using interdisciplinary approaches.
 The Role of Disordered Proteins in Tardigrade Desiccation Tolerance
Dr. Thomas Boothby Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, University of Wyoming, USA
TWITTER
Tardigrades are a group of microscopic animals renowned for their ability to survive a number of environmental stresses. One such stress is severe water-loss, which these animals survive by entering into a dry state of suspended animation known as anhydrobiosis (life without water). How tardigrades mediate this process is largely unknown, but emerging evidence suggests that tardigrades, like any other stress tolerant organisms, utilize intrinsically disordered proteins to robustly survive the drying processes. Here, new insights into the role of disordered proteins and their mechanisms of action are presented.
Bio: Dr. Thomas Boothby completed his Bachelors degree at Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) and his PhD at University of Maryland where his PhD thesis dealt with post-transcriptional control of RNA during emergence from dormancy. After completing a postdoctoral position at University of North Carolina (how tardigrades survive desiccation), he is now Assistant Prof. at the University of Wyoming studying organismal stress tolerance.
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