Michael Wilson

Extreme muscle: a biophysical approach to explore and understand muscle proteins from extreme environments

This project will develop quantitative biophysical approaches to compare the mechanical response of muscle proteins from mesophilic and cold adapted clams. The student will work with the British Antarctic Survey and use bioinformatic approaches to identify homologous proteins from these organisms and compare their sequences. Variants will then be constructed and single molecule force spectroscopy will be used to characterise the mechanical properties and kinetic stabilty of proteins.