2021 Art of Science Contest
Thank you to all who have participated in this year's contest and voted in the people's choice award. See all of this years' winners here.
2021 Art of Science People's Choice Winner
Congratulations to the Art of Science People's Choice Award winner – Deepika Regmi, Ph.D., a graduate student in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science.
Title: AFM images of prion fragment 106-128 fibrillization reaction
Description: Prion disease is a fatal neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system. Prion fragments (106-128) have a high propensity to accumulate in the brain and cause prion diseases. We want to investigate an anti-prion compound that inhibits or delays the aggregation process. Green tea contains polyphenols and flavonoids — an important class of antioxidants — and can therefore fight or even prevent diseases. The AFM image of the prion 106-128 fibrillization reactions in in-vitro conditions, under physiological conditions, incubated for 85 hours in the absence and presence of polyphenols.
Image 1: The prion peptide itself forms dense amyloid fibrils (without polyphenols).
Image 2: The fibrillization reaction of prion peptides with 100 µM naringenin (polyphenol). Naringenin does not significantly modulate the fibrillization of prion peptides.
Image 3: The formation of amyloid fibrils of prion peptides with 100 µM quercetin (polyphenol). Quercetin slightly inhibits the aggregation of prion peptides.