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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:24.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>The 2012 El Paso Corporation Lecture Series</span><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times-Bold'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:28.0pt;font-family:Times-Bold'>Protein Folding, Link between<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:28.0pt;font-family:Times-Bold'>Misfolding and Diseases and Role of<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:28.0pt;font-family:Times-Bold'>Molecular Chaperones<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:28.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>Professor Devarajan Thirumalai<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>Institute for Physical Science and Technology<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>University of Maryland<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Times-Bold'>5:00-6:30pm April 25</span></b><b><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Bold'>th</span></b><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Times-Bold'>, 2012 (Wednesday)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times-Italic","sans-serif"'>Refreshment starts at 4:30pm<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>Science and Research Building 1, Room 634<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>University of Houston<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, Texas</span><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>Free and open to the public<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>Proteins are workhorses in almost all cellular functions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>To carry out multitude of tasks proteins have to fold in<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>a finite time. Nature utilizes elaborate machinery to<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>ensure that after synthesis proteins fold, execute their<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>functions, and are then degraded. Despite the evolution<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>of these checkpoints proteins sometimes misfold and<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>aggregate. Protein aggregation is linked to a number of<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>neurodegenerative diseases. Popular examples are mad<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>cow disease and Alzheimer’s disease. How do proteins<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>fold to avoid aggregating most of the time? If they tend<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>to misfold they are rescued by molecular chaperones.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>How does molecular chaperone, a biological machine,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>function? I will describe theoretical concepts that<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'>provide a framework for answering these questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:Times-Roman'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:Times-Roman'>Professor Thirumalai is a Distinguished University Professor and the Founding Director of the Biophysics<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:Times-Roman'>Program at the University of Maryland. His current research interests focus on soft matter science, biophysics,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:Times-Roman'>and condensed matter science. His research on “Topics in Protein Folding and Dynamics” has been funded by the<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:Times-Roman'>National Science Foundation since 1986. One of his research topics on amyloid aggregates associated with<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:Times-Roman'>neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, has greatly impacted the biomedical science community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:Times-Roman'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times-Italic","sans-serif"'>Sponsored by The University of Houston College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of Physics.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><i><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times-Italic","sans-serif"'>Hosted by Dr. Margaret Cheung (713-743-8358)</span></i><o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>