Topic: protein interactions

Develop high-throughput methods to measure how protein interactions respond to mechanical force. The project combines protein engineering, yeast surface display, directed evolution, deep sequencing and single-molecule force measurements, with machine-learning models trained on the resulting data. Initial applications study interactions involved in blood clotting and von Willebrand disease. This salaried doctoral appointment spans experimental and computational work at ETH Zurich and the University of Basel, with teaching and publication duties.

Macromolecular protein complexes perform essential biological functions across life forms. A fundamental, though yet unsolved question in biology is how the function of such complexes is regulated by intracellular or extracellular signals. For instance, we have little understanding of how forces affect multi-protein machines whose function is often mechanical in nature. We address this question by studying the bacterial flagellar motor, a large complex that powers swimming motility in many bacteria. This rotary motor autonomously adapts to changes in mechanical load by adding or removing force