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Dr. Zoya Leonenko
Group Leader
Associate Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Department of Biology
Waterloo Institute of Nanotechnology
University of Waterloo
zleonenk@uwaterloo.ca
PHY 354 519-888-4567 x38273 (office)
PHY 335 519-888-4567 x38495, x38570 (lab)
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Research Program
Our current research focuses on the biophysics of lipids and lipid-protein interactions,
the role of structural changes and physical properties of lipid monolayers and bilayers
in controlling biological processes and diseases, and application of lipid films
in biomedical nanotechnology.
We study the effect of lipid membrane on amyloid fibril formation. Amyloid fibrils
are insoluble molecular aggregates composed of proteins. Various proteins form similar
amyloid fibrils irrespective of their origin. Amyloid plaques (collections of fibrils)
are associated with various diseases such as Alzheimer's. The molecular mechanism
of the formation of plaques and the reason for initiation of this process are currently
unknown. We believe that lipid rafts, which are present in all cell membranes and
are central to the communication of cells with their environs, may play an important
role in the mechanism of amyloid fibril formation and toxicity. We study the physical
properties of the lipid and plasma membrane and how they are affected by inclusion
of small molecules such as cholesterol, cortisol and melatonin, and how these factors
affect fibril formation on the surface of lipid membrane. We also investigate a
correlation between the amyloid fibrils formation on the surface of neuron cell
and the electric signal propagation in neuron networks. We study the structure and
function of lung surfactant and amyloid fibril formation of surfactant specific
protein C. We showed that surface potential distribution in lung surfactant is highly
non-uniform and is affected by the excess of cholesterol. This changes surfactant
structure and function and also affects interactions of nanoparticles and charged
biomolecules with the lung surfactant films. We use optical, fluorescence and scanning
probe microscopy such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), Kelvin probe force microscopy
(KPFM) and AFM based force measurements, as well as Langmuir-Blodgett monolayer
technique, surface enhanced spectroscopy and quartz crystal microbalances. We are
also currently working on developing frequency modulation KPFM (FM-KPFM) techniques
for biological applications.
Funding Received From:
Natural Sciences
and Engineering Research Council of Canada
CIHR (Canadian Institute for Health Research)
Canada Foundation for Innovation
Ontario Ministry of Research
& Innovation
University of Waterloo
