In-situ AFM of pathogenic proteins involved in meningitis and septicaemia

许多导致疾病的细菌会分泌攻击和降解人体组织的物质（蛋白质）。我们最近发现了一种新的蛋白质，这种蛋白质可以破坏人体血细胞，让细菌利用它们的内容物作为营养物质，在血液中生存。当引起脑膜炎和败血症的细菌分泌的一种蛋白质进入红细胞的细胞膜时，跟踪这种蛋白质应该是可能的，对细胞形状的变化进行成像，并对这种蛋白质在细胞中所起的作用有新的认识。年代的灭亡。原子力显微镜（AFM）是一种成像技术，使我们能够在极高的放大倍数下观察膜内的单个蛋白质。我们可以在生理条件下观察表面，并有可能在分子尺度上实时跟踪过程，提供比目前传统光学或电子显微镜更多的细节。申请人最近的发展使成像速度大大加快，提供了实时可视化疾病建立过程中重要早期事件的机会。该赠款旨在将物理科学的专门知识转移到医学领域，提供以前未用于医疗问题的设备的访问和专业知识。一名物理科学家研究员将被重新安置到医学院，为她提供相当多的新培训，并赋予她将AFM技术应用于这些重要系统的独特技能。它也将给物理科学家申请人足够的时间来熟悉医学相关的生物学，为开发更广泛应用于医学的新的AFM相关技术提供良好的基础。

Many bacteria responsible for disease secrete substances (proteins) that attack and degrade human tissue. We have recently identified new proteins that subvert human blood cells allowing bacteria to use their contents as nutrients and survive in the blood. It should be possible to follow a protein secreted by the bacteria responsible for meningitis and septicaemia as it enters the cell membrane of a red blood cell, image the resultant changes in cell shape, and gain a new understanding of role played by the protein in the cell?s demise. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an imaging technique that allows us to view individual proteins within membranes at extremely high magnification. We can view surfaces under physiological conditions, and potentially follow processes at a molecular scale in real-time providing much more detail than is available currently with conventional light or electron microscopy. Recent developments by the applicant allow considerably faster imaging, providing an opportunity to visualize, in real time, important early events in the establishment of disease.This grant aims to transfer expertise from physical science into medicine, providing access and expertise in equipment not previously applied to a medical problem. A physical scientist researcher will be physically re-located into the School of Medicine, providing her with considerable new training and giving her a unique skill set for applying AFM technology to these important systems. It will also give the physical scientist applicant sufficient time to become well acquainted with the medically relevant biology, providing a sound basis for the development of new AFM related technologies of wider application to medicine.