Ryan Bradley

Email: rpb5021@psu.edu

Office address:
115 Fenske Laboratory
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, 16802

Undergraduate degree
Major: Chemical Engineering (Bioprocess Option) and Mathematics,
Pennsylvania State University

Hobbies and interests:
Guitar, bass, and drums. Swimming and running. Reading and re-reading books by Thomas Pynchon. Aimlessly browsing Wikipedia. Writing letters to the editor.

Duration in group: 2008 - 2009

Research Summary: Structure and dynamics of alpha-synuclein, the protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease
My research focuses on studying the structure and dynamics of human alpha-synuclein, the primary antagonist in Parkinson’s disease. It has been conjectured that alpha-synuclein plays a role in modulating vesicle size or rigidity in neurotransmission. Aggregation into fibrils is a hallmark of Parkinson’s disease; however, little is known about the formation of oligomers. I am using molecular dynamics simulation to compare the dynamics and corresponding structure changes among different variants of the protein, including the wild-type, a mutated protein which is related to the familial version of Parkinson’s disease, and an oxidative-stress-damaged version, which may play a role in the sporadic form of the disease. The results of this study will be used to draw conclusions about the aggregation of alpha-synuclein into oligomers.