Research Projects

Protein aggregation and its associated diseases are widespread in neurodegeneration, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The accumulation of protein aggregates in brain tissue plays a pivotal role in the pathology and etiology of neurodegenerative diseases. Protein aggregation is a multistep process that progresses from early-stage soluble intermediates to late-stage mature insoluble amyloid fibrils. Here, the soluble oligomers are the most toxic and harmful, playing a crucial role in neurodegenerative diseases. The transient nature, inherent heterogeneity, inherent complexity, and wide dynamic range of this aggregation process make it challenging for conventional biochemical and biophysical techniques to capture the entire time window (a few µs to several days) of protein aggregation in real time. Therefore, novel methods that are cost-effective, prototype, sensitive, and user-friendly are in high demand. Therefore, the main aim of this project is to introduce a sensitive and straightforward light-guided transmission method based on the principle of nonlinear optics to study protein aggregation in real time of the following proteins: alpha-synuclein, tau, and Superoxide Dismutase 1 (SOD1), which have prime roles in the progression of PD, AD, and ALS, respectively under ps laser excitation. We firmly believe that our straightforward yet powerful method could also assist in other neurodegenerative diseases in the near future. Besides, we also hypothesize that this method can be extended to other human diseases that are associated with protein aggregation.