α-Synuclein (α-syn) accumulates as insoluble amyloid but also forms soluble α-syn oligomers (αSOs), thought to be even more cytotoxic than fibrils. To detect and block the unwanted activities of these αSOs, we have raised 30 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against different forms of αSOs, ranging from unmodified αSOs to species stabilized by lipid peroxidation products and polyphenols, αSOs formed by C-terminally truncated α-syn, and multivalent display of α-syn on capsid virus-like particles…

Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in steatotic cells pose a problem due to their potential to cause oxidative stress and cellular damage. Delivering engineered phospholipids to intracellular lipid droplets in steatotic hepatic cells, using the cell's inherent intracellular lipid transport mechanisms are investigated. Initially, it is shown that tail-labeled fluorescent lipids assembled into liposomes are able to be transported to intracellular lipid droplets in steatotic HepG2 cells…

Designing and assembling artificial cells (ACs) is a core direction in bottom-up synthetic biology. Here, the advancements in the past 3 years in engineering ACs with focus on compartmentalization and surface modifications with the aim for their integration in semi-synthetic tissue are outlined. Compartmentalization in vesicles, coacervates and hydrogels are discussed for encapsulated catalysis or cytoskeleton formation including the use of components of mammalian cells to increase the ACs’…