JSPS short term fellowship:
The development of methods for expressing deuterated proteins in algal-derived media
Katarina Koruza is a PhD student at Lund University (Sweden), and performing research centered on deuteration of biological macromolecules. Her research is based at Lund Protein production platform (LP3) and the Deuteration and Macromolecular Crystallisation (DEMAX) platform that supports life science and soft matter research users of European Spallation Source (ESS).
In her recent study, she focused on the development of low-cost and high-yield protein deuteration method for neutron crystallography. Katarina currently works as a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) short-term fellow at Comprehensive Research Organization for Science and Society (CROSS) and National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST).
Both labs share common scientific interest with DEMAX lab on preparation and chemical characterization of perdeuterated algal extract. Katarina will use well established methods developed at QST lab to express cancer-related protein “carbonic anhydrase IX” in perdeuterated algal-derived media. Sharing expertise and establishing a collaboration between biological deuteration lab at J-PARC and DEMAX lab is a foundation for a long term synergy and sharing of expertise in the neutron research community.
HCA IX : cancer-related human carbonic anhydrase IX.
ESS: European Spallation Source.
J-PARC: Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex.
CROSS: Comprehensive Research Organization for Science and Society.
QST: National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology.
JSPS: Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.