Research Unit: Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular

Research Gate:

https://www.umh.es/contenido/Universidad/:persona_231685/datos_es.html

Research Fields:

Protein engineering.

Protein-ligand binding interactions and protein-protein interaction.

Biochemical, biophysical and structural characterization of proteins.

 Representative Publications:

• A. M. Fernández Escamilla (2016). Exploring New Findings on Amyloidosis: InTech – open science | open minds.

• Espinosa-Urgel M., Serrano L, Ramos JL.,  Fernandez-Escamilla A. M. (2015). Engineering Biological Approaches for Antibiotic Detection. A New Microbial Biosensor Based on Ttgr Repressor.  Molecular Biotecnology 57(6): 558-564.

•  J. Martínez, R. Sánchez, M. Castellano, A. M. Fernandez-Escamilla, S. Vázquez-Cortés, M. Fernández-Rivas and M. Gasset. (2015). Fish β-parvalbumin acquires allergenic properties by amyloid assembly.  Swiss Med Wkly. 2015;145:w14128.

• Fernandez-Escamilla A. M., Fernandez-Ballester G., Morel B., Casares-Atienza S., Ramos JL. (2015). Molecular Binding Mechanism of TtgR Represor to Antibiotics and Antimicrobials.: Plos One 10(9):e0138469.

• Molina-Henares M. A., Ramos-González M. I., Daddaoua A., Fernández-Escamilla AM., Espinosa-Urgel M. (2017).  FleQ of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 is a multimeric cyclic diguanylate-binding protein that differentially regulates expression of biofilm matrix components. Research in Microbiology 168(2017):36-45.

 Patents and Available Technologies:

TANGO (http://tango.crg.es/).

A computer algorithm designed to predict aggregation nucleating regions in proteins as well the effect of mutations and environmental conditions on the aggregation propensity of these regions. We derived a statistical mechanics algorithm, TANGO, based on simple physico-chemical principles of secondary structure formation extended by the assumption that the core regions of an aggregate are fully buried. TANGO was benchmarked against 175 peptides of over 20 proteins and was able to predict the sequences experimentally observed to contribute to the aggregation of these proteins. Further TANGO correctly predicts the aggregation propensities of several disease-related mutations in the Alzheimer’s b-peptide. Our algorithm, therefore, opens the possibility to screen large databases for potentially disease-related aggregation motifs as well as to optimize recombinant protein yields by rationally out-designing protein aggregation.

 Company agreements: 

CONTRACT TITLE: Detection of toxic compounds by the bacterial biosensor based on the TtgR repressor of Pseudomonas putida DOT -T1E

FINANCIAL ENTITIES:  GRONTAL Biotechnological Solutions S.L., Spanish National Research Council (CSIC)

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Ana María Fernández Escamilla