Ioanna Myronidi - A short interview before the defence

On February 20th, Ioanna Myronidi will defend her thesis, "Polytopic Membrane Protein Biogenesis from the Perspective of a Specialized Membrane-Localized Chaperone".

Photo: Niklas Björling

What do you examine in your thesis?

"My research was focused on understanding how highly selective membrane-localized chaperone proteins assist proteins that function at the plasma membrane of cells to fold into a native 3D-structure. Specifically, I used the single-cell organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae to study the mechanism of function of the fungal-specific endoplasmic reticulum membrane-localized chaperone Shr3 that is required for the folding and functional expression of amino acid permeases, a family of proteins that are destined to work at the plasma membrane of yeast cells and import amino acids from the extracellular environment into the cells."

What do you hope your research can lead to?

"When protein folding fails, protein misfolding and aggregation can be a leading cause of disease, for example in eurodegenerative diseases. Understanding how various chaperones assist different proteins to fold correctly and identify imilarities and differences in their mechanism of function can hopefully provide targets for therapy development. Additionally, the membrane-localized chaperone that my research was focused on is specifically found and conserved among fungi and can affect the fungal metabolism. Hence, understanding its mechanism of function may provide new opportunities to control pathogenic fungal species, especially considering the challenges posed by emerging multidrug resistance."

What will you do after your defense?

"Contributing to society in a meaningful way is a major driving force for me, so after my defense I would like to apply my knowledge and skills into the field of drug design or clinical trials. I believe that completing the doctoral program in Molecular Bioscience at MBW has equipped me with the necessary theoretical and practical expertise to achieve this goal."

Ioanna Myronidi will defend her thesis, titled 'Polytopic Membrane Protein Biogenesis from the Perspective of a Specialized Membrane-Localized Chaperone,' on February 20th at 13:00 in Vivi Täckholmsalen.

Go to the calendar event.

Read full thesis in DIVA by following this link.

Theme

Research subject

Molecular Cell Biology

Research group

Group Ljungdahl

Amino acids are essential nutrients that serve as building blocks of proteins and some are efficiently metabolized for energy. Eukaryotic cells respond to extracellular amino acids by enhancing their uptake. We study the molecular mechanisms underlying this response and the role of amino acid metabolism in promoting virulent growth of human fungal pathogens.

Last updated: February 3, 2025

Source: MBW

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