Andreas Matouschek is a biochemist at

The University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, where he is a professor in the College of Natural Sciences. His graduate work with

Alan Fersht Sir Alan Roy Fersht (born 21 April 1943) is a British chemist at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, and an Emeritus Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. He was Master of Gonville and Caius C ...

resulted in the seminal application of phi-value analysis to the study of

barnase Barnase (a portmanteau of "BActerial" "RiboNucleASE") is a bacterial protein that consists of 110 amino acids and has ribonuclease activity. It is synthesized and secreted by the bacterium '' Bacillus amyloliquefaciens'', but is lethal to the cel ...

, a bacterial RNAse used in many protein folding studies. Development of

phi value analysis Phi value analysis, \phi analysis, or \phi-value analysis is an experimental protein engineering technique for studying the structure of the folding transition state of small protein domains that fold in a two-state manner. The structure of the f ...

in combination with extensive protein engineering enabled an understanding of the kinetic intermediates during protein folding of barnase. In subsequent postdoctoral work at the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

, he studied how mitochondria refold proteins after importing them. In 1996, he moved to

Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Charte ...

. In 2012, he moved to

. Matouschek currently studies the proteasome, the degradation machinery of eukaryotic cells, and the mechanisms by which the proteasome is able to unfold and translocate proteins.

Scientific career

Cambridge (1988-1993)

At Cambridge, Matouschek was a graduate student under Sir Alan Fersht from 1988 to 1992. In 1989, he pioneered the use of

in combination with protein engineering in order to study the transition state of the bacterial protein

. By engineering mutations in carefully chosen portions of barnase and computing the ratio between the energetic destabilization introduced by a mutation in the

transition state In chemistry, the transition state of a chemical reaction is a particular configuration along the reaction coordinate. It is defined as the state corresponding to the highest potential energy along this reaction coordinate. It is often marked ...

of barnase versus that of the same mutation to barnase's native state, he was able to gain insight about the transition state of barnase and its folding pathway. After receiving his PhD in 1992, Matouschek continued his work with Fersht, serving as a research fellow at the

Centre for Protein Engineering {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The MRC Centre for Protein Engineering (or CPE) was a pioneering research unit in Cambridge, England, with a main focus on the structure, stability and activity of proteins and engineering of antibodies. Centre for ...

for an additional year.

University of Basel (1993-1996)

At the University of Basel, Matoschek was a postdoctorate fellow under Gottfried (Jeff) Schatz.

Northwestern University (1996-2012)

The University of Texas at Austin (2012-present)

Matouschek was recruited to

in 2012.

References

External links

* Living people University of Texas at Austin faculty Alumni of the University of Cambridge Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-biologist-stub