Protein Misfolding and Human Diseases

Dr. Prabhakar is a Professor in the Department of Biotechnology at Nagaland University, Kohima, India. He has been recognized among leading global scientists by Stanford’s annual Top Scientists list. He earned his PhD in Biotechnology from IIT Madras. His research centers on molecular mechanisms and strategies for oral insulin delivery and mimicking signaling pathways in metabolic disorders using natural products. He is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Asia-Pacific Chemical, Biological & Environmental Engineering Society, and contributes as an editorial board member and reviewer for multiple journals. Dr. Prabhakar has received honors including a travel grant to a European conference supported by IIT Madras and CSIR, and funding approved by the Department of Science and Technology. He has published a substantial body of work, authored or edited several books, contributed many chapters, and given numerous talks and poster presentations at conferences. Dr. Ajit Prakash completed his B.Sc. Biotechnology at Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, and M.Sc. Genomics at Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil Nadu, India. Further, Dr. Ajit obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry in 2016 from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He carried out his first postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Cambridge, UK. Following this he worked at Lovely Professional University as an assistant professor for almost a year and then finally relocated to the USA for his second postdoc at the University of North Carolina, Chaple Hill, USA. After 5 years of postdoctoral research at UNC, he is currently working as a Research Associate at UNC, Chapel Hill, USA. In addition to 3 book chapters and a book which are under publication, Dr. Ajit has published 16 high-impact research papers/book chapters in the fields of protein biochemistry, structural biology, and molecular biology related to disease conditions like cancer, and neurological disorders. Dr. Mohammad Ashhar Iqbal Khan is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA. He completed his PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi in 2016. Dr. Khan's doctoral research focused on elucidating the molecular mechanisms of protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases like ALS and Parkinson's using biophysical techniques. As a postdoctoral researcher at UNC Chapel Hill and Lund University in Sweden, he expanded his expertise to study key cell adhesion proteins vinculin and metavinculin linked to cardiomyopathies and cancer. He has authored several peer-reviewed publications and delivered invited talks and poster presentations at scientific conferences. He is a recipient of prestigious fellowships and awards including the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship and the Carl Trygger Foundation Postdoctoral Scholarship. He serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for many reputed national and international journals.

• Part I: Fundamentals of protein aggregation1. Protein aggregation mechanismsPart II: Protein aggregation in neurodegenerative diseases2. Protein aggregation in Alzheimer's disease3. Protein aggregation in Parkinson's disease4. Protein aggregation in Huntington's disease5. Protein aggregation in prion diseases6. Protein aggregation in Amyotrophic Lateral SclerosisPart III: Other protein aggregation diseases7. Systemic amyloidosis8. Protein aggregation and agingPart IV: Structural insights and therapeutic Strategies9. Structural insights into pathological protein aggregates: from amyloid fibrils to inclusion bodies10. Therapeutic strategies against protein aggregation11. Recent advances in protein aggregation research and future outlook