Protein Engineering

Begoña Sot did her PhD in Universidad del Pais Vasco, under the supervision of Prof. Arturo Muga, focused on the allosterism of chaperons. Then she worked with Prof. Alan Fersht (Centre for Protein Engineering, Cambridge) gaining knowledge in biophysical characterization of protein-protein interactions. Later she worked with Prof. Alfred Wittinghofer (MPI, Dortmund) studying the activation of G-proteins activity by protein-protein interactions and its regulation by co-localization. In 2011 he joined Prof. Jose Maria Valpuesta`s group (CNB-CSIC), where she learned Electron Microscopy techniques. Finally, she joined IMDEA in December 2012 as Ramón y Cajal fellow.

The group has varied interests in proteins and their use as tools in nanomedicine:

1. Design of new immunotherapy tools based in engineered molecular chaperones and gold nanoparti- cles able to load Antigen Presenting Cells with antigens and siRNAs for their use in immunotherapy.
2. Biofuncionalization of magnetic and optic nanoparticles for targeting and detection of molecular markers in cardiovascular diseases.
3. Mechanism of molecular chaperones inhibition of amyloid fibers assembly.

• Ras GTPase activating (RasGAP) activity of the dual specificity GAP protein Rasal requires colocalization and C2 domain binding to lipid membranes. Sot B et col., Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 110, 111-6 (2013)
• Unravelling the mechanism of dual-specificity GAPs. Sot B et col., EMBO J. 29, 1205-14 (2010)
• Comparative biophysical characterization of the interaction of p53 with the pro-apoptotic BAK and the anti-apoptotic BCL-xL. Sot B et col., J Biol Chem. 282, 29193-200 (2007)