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Responsable de l’équipe de recherche

Peter FALLER
Professeur à l'Unistra

Année de création de l'équipe - 2015

Site de l'équipe de recherche

https://bcb.chimie.unistra.fr/

Localisation

Institut Le Bel, 4^ème étage Nord

Secrétariat et gestion assurés par

Paola SAGER
courriel : paola.sager@unistra.fr
téléphone : 03 68 85 12 41

Personnels permanents

Personnels non permanents

Post-Doctorant

• Ryan Djemil
  Courriel : rdjemili@unistra.fr

 Doctorants

• Enrico FALCONE
  Courriel : efalcone@unistra.fr

• Maxime NAUDE
  Courriel : mnaude@unistra.fr

• Thibaut GALLER
  Courriel : tgaller@unistra.fr

• Michael OKAFOR
  Courriel : okafor@unistra.fr

Descriptif de l'équipe de recherche

Our research group works at the interface of chemistry with biology and a main focus is peptides and their interaction with d-block metal ions like copper and zinc. The aims are either to understand the mechanisms of biological processes or to design peptide-metal, metal-ligands or metal-ligand-peptide edifices with applications in catalysis, biology or medicine.

We have several axis of research:

1) Metal complexes with (amyloidogenic) peptides: Amyloidogenic peptides can form amyloids by a self-assembly process are found in several diseases, in particular in neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer, Parkinson, Prion,…). High amounts of copper, zinc and iron are found bound to amyloid-beta in the amyloid plaques in Alzheimer patients. Therefore we are interested in how these metal ions interact with amyloidogenic peptides and in the design of peptides for therapeutic approaches.

2) Protein-like scaffolds via assembly of de novo peptides: We are investigating new possibilities offered by peptide self-assembly to develop biomaterials. Natural silks (from the mulberry silkworm or from spiders) are nothing else than filaments made of aggregated proteins. Noteworthy, they display very interesting mechanical properties. Therefore, being able to synthesize silk-like materials made of de novo peptides holds great potential, since it would open the way to fine-tune the mechanical properties via sequence mutation. 

3)  Synthesis of peptides or peptide-hybrides for biological or medicinal application. Peptides are used as platforms to conjugate inorganic ligands and their metal complexes, fluorophores /luminophores, and other chemical compounds for several applications, such as antimicrobials, copper(II)-sensors via luminescence or magnetic resonance imaging for biological probes, anticancer, etc.

Main Methods:

Analytical methods: Spectroscopical methods (EPR, NMR, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, circular diochroism, absorbance, fluorescence …), microscopies (AFM, TEM), isothermal titration calorimetry, chromatography, electrophoreses.

Synthesis, Peptides: Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis (SPPS Fmoc/tBu) and Chemical ligation (NCL, SEA ligation) technics.

Synthesis ligands: Synthesis of metal-ion ligands to form bioactive metal-ligand complexes and functionalized ligands for conjugation to peptides.

Key words:

biometals; bioinorganic chemistry; bioorganic chemistry; copper, zinc, iron; peptides; Chemical peptide synthesis;  Inorganic ligand synthesis; bioconjugation; metalloproteins, reactive oxygen species, self-assembly; amyloids; metal trafficking; fluorophores; inhibitors; spectroscopies.

Liste du matériel et des appareils

• Plate reader to measure fluorescence and absorbance in 96 or 384 wells plate
• UV-Vis spectrophotometer
• HPLC (analytical and preparative)
• Lyophilizer

Références bibliographiques récentes

REVIEWS:

Ayala S, Genevaux P, Hureau C, Faller P.
(Bio)Chemical strategies to modulate amyloid-β self-assembly
ACS Chem Neurosci. 10, 3366-3374 (2019)

Gonzalez P, Bossak K, Stefaniak E, Hureau C, Raibaut L, Bal W., Faller, P.
N-terminal Cu Binding Motifs Xxx-Zzz-His (ATCUN) and Xxx-His and their derivatives Chemistry, Biology and Medicinal Applications
Chem. Eur. J.  24, 8029-8041 (2018)

Atrián-Blasco E, Santoro A, Pountney DL, Meloni G, Hureau C, Faller P.
Chemistry of Mammalian Metallothioneins and their Interaction with Amyloidogenic Peptides and Proteins
Chem. Soc. Rev., 46, 7683-7693 (2017)

C. Cheignon, M. Tomas, D. Bonnefont-Rousselot, P. Faller, C. Hureau, F. Collin
Oxidative stress and the amyloid beta peptide in Alzheimer’s Disease
Redox Biology, 14, 450-464 (2017)

Faller P, Hureau C, La Penna G.
Metal ions and intrinsically disordered proteins and peptides: from Cu/Zn amyloid-β to general principles
Acc Chem Res. 2014, 47,2252-9

ORIGINAL ARTICLES: (Recent and Selected)

Bouraguba M, Glattard E, Naudé M, Pelletier R, Aisenbrey C, Bechinger B, Raibaut L, Lebrun V, Faller P.
Copper-binding motifs Xxx-His or Xxx-Zzz-His (ATCUN) linked to an Antimicrobial Peptide: Cu-binding, antimicrobial activity and ROS production.
J. Inorg. Biochem. accepted (2020)

Galler T, Lebrun V, Raibaut L, Faller P, Wezynfeld NE.
How trimerization of CTR1 N-terminal model peptides tune Cu-binding and redox-chemistry
Chem Comm, accepted (2020)         

Falcone E., Gonzalez P., Lorusso L., Sénèque O., Faller P., Raibaut L.
A Terbium(III) luminescent ATCUN-based peptide sensor for selective and reversible detection of Copper(II) in biological media
Chem Comm, 56, 4797-4800 (2020)                        

Santoro A, Calvo, J.S., Peris-Díaz MD, Krężel A, Meloni, G., Faller P.
The glutathione/metallothionein system challenges the design of efficient O₂-activating Copper complexes
Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 59, 7830-7835 (2020)                      

Falcone E, Ahmed IMM, Oliveri V, Bellia F, Vileno B, El Khoury Y, Hellwig P, Faller P, Vecchio G.
Acrolein and Copper as Competitive Effectors of α-Synuclein
Chem. Eur. J , 26, 1871-1879 (2020)

Enrico Falcone, Angélique Sour,  Vincent Lebrun,  Gilles Ulrich,  Laurent Raibaut* and  Peter Faller
Reversible turn-on fluorescent Cu(II) sensors: rather dream than reality?
Dalton Trans, 48, 14233-14237 (2019)

Reybier K, Ayala S, Alies B, Rodrigues JV, Bustos Rodriguez S, La Penna G, Collin F, Gomes CM, Hureau C, Faller P.
Free Superoxide is an Intermediate in the Production of H2 O2 by Copper(I)-Aβ Peptide and O2
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2016, 55, 1085-9

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