Dr Jocelyne Vreede of the research group Computational Chemistry at the Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences (HIMS) worked together with researchers at the UvA’s Swammerdam Institute for Life Sciences (SILS) to elucidate the structure and dynamics of the spore membrane protein GerAB from the bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The study contributes to a better understanding of the germination of B. Subtilis spores, which is a model organism for bacterial spore formers associated with food spoilage and foodborne diseases.
A paper describing the study has just been published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. First author is Sophie Blinker, a talented student doing a double masters in both Biomedical Sciences and Medicine at the UvA. She started the study on the germination mechanisms of Bacillus subtilis as part of her BSc research honours excellence track and pursued this during student internships under the supervision of Prof. Stanley Brul of SILS.
Blinker, S.; Vreede, J.; Setlow, P.; Brul, S. Predicting the Structure and Dynamics of Membrane Protein GerAB from Bacillus subtilis. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 3793. DOI: 10.3390/ijms22073793