General and simple-to-implement method for preparation of: Protein-fibers & Protein-sheets

About the Project

Cryo-TEM imaging shows that protein fibers & sheets are obtained when doubly His⁶-tagged proteins (e.g. Ubiquitin or Cas9) are conjugated specifically with Zn²⁺ or Ni²⁺ [1]. Similar findings are observed with a doubly His6-tagged fluorescent protein: mCherry [2] and the Z-domain of Protein A [3]. It seems as if a general, simple-to-implement method for preparation of protein filaments and sheets composed of functional proteins was found. This in turn, is expected to be exploited for diverse scientific and medicinal applications.

We are seeking to recruit a PhD scholar with extensive experience in protein expression in E. coli as that would provide additional doubly His6-tagged proteins to be analyzed by cryo-EM at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel). Being a small group (2-3 PhD students), we discuss daily the meaning of the results and decide how to move forward. So, every student receives full attention and assistance throughout his/her degree. By following this attitude, we generally make significant progress very rapidly since working together as a team (where ego is out of the equation), circumvents huge time loss due to misunderstandings or focusing on the wrong objectives.

References

[1] Lal et al., His6-tag based supramolecular biopolymerization. Scientific Reports (2024) 16;14(1):28332. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-78647-1
[2] Razi et al., Fluorescent supramolecular fibers and sheets built from doubly hexa-His tagged mCherry proteins conjugated by divalent metal cations. Int J Biol Macromol. (2025) 327, 147384. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2025.147384.
[3] Razi et al., Supramolecular Biopolymer Composed of a Doubly (His)6-Tagged Tandem Z-Domain Conjugated by Zn2+ Ions. ACS Synthetic Biology. doi: 10.1021/acssynbio.5c00960
[4] Kumari et al., Protein fibers and sheets composed of multiple (His)6-tagged proteins. (In preparation)