Title :
Terahertz spectroscopy of misfolded proteins in bio-tissue
Author :
Png, Gretel M. ; Flook, Robyn ; Ng, Brian W H ; Abbott, Derek
Author_Institution :
Sch. of Electr. & Electron. Eng., Univ. of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
Abstract :
Proteins in living organisms must fold in order to carry out their biological function. However some proteins misfold to become unwanted deposits. Understanding the causes and mechanics of protein folding is immensely important in the study of diseases which are caused by protein misfolding. This abstract reports on a novel study which uses terahertz (THz) spectroscopy to probe misfolded proteins in excised diseased human brain tissue. Our early results show distinction in the THz absorption spectra, which could be attributed to pathological changes in the diseased tissue.
Keywords :
biological techniques; brain; diseases; molecular configurations; proteins; terahertz spectroscopy; THz absorption spectra; bio-tissue; diseased human brain tissue; misfolded protein terahertz spectroscopy; protein folding mechanics; tissue pathological changes; Alzheimer´s disease; Australia; Brain; Humans; In vivo; Magnetic resonance imaging; Neurons; Organisms; Protein engineering; Spectroscopy;
Conference_Titel :
Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves, 2009. IRMMW-THz 2009. 34th International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Busan
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-5416-7
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-5417-4
DOI :
10.1109/ICIMW.2009.5325542
