Many neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are linked to proteins that are prone to misfolding and aggregation. These proteins often contain intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) that behave unpredictably, contributing to their accumulation in the brain. Traditional therapies struggle to target IDRs because they lack a stable surface for small molecule drugs to bind to.
As a Schmidt Science Fellow, Joel aims to overcome that limitation by designing synthetic proteins that can bind to IDRs and prevent or reverse harmful aggregation.
Using machine learning to guide the design of these artificially created proteins, Joel’s research will not only advance therapeutic development for IDR-related diseases but also deepen our understanding of IDR biology.
Joel will pivot from Microbiology to Computational Biology