Today is Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Day, and the Institute for Protein Design is collaborating with the Jain Foundation and Foldit community to to model the structure of human dysferlin protein (DYSF), an important protein for normal muscle function. Numerous mutations in the gene that encodes DYSF protein are known to be the cause of Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy. Our goal is first to first gain a better understanding of the structure of DYSF and then to use the structural information to investigate the effects of LGMD disease mutations on DYSF structure and function.
Read more on DYSF and LGMD at UW’s NewsBeat’s release here and Foldit’s release here.