

Wilfried W. de Jong is head of the Protein Biochemistry section of the NCMLS, and is Professor in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computing Sciences at the Radboud University. He is also professor in Molecular Systematic Zoology at the University of Amsterdam.

Prof. Dr. Wilfried W. de Jong

Research interests include protein structure, function and evolution, with a special focus on intracellular functioning and diversity of mammalian small heat-shock proteins (sHsps). Major current projects analyse the role of the 10 human sHsps in cytoprotection and degenerative disease, and their functioning as inhibitors of apoptosis and in the ubiquitin proteasome system. His interests lie in a detailed reconstruction of the evolutionary history of the mammalian sHsp family contributing to understanding of molecular and genome evolution in general, including phenomena like simple sequence repeats and head-to-head located gene pairs.

Recent key publications

Boros, S., Åhrman, E., Wunderink, L., Kamps, B., de Jong, W.W., Boelens, W.C. & Sundby Emanuelsson, C. (2005) Site-specific transamidation and deamidation of the small heat shock protein Hsp20 by tissue transglutaminase. Proteins (accepted)

den Engelsman, J., Gerrits, D., de Jong, W.W., Robbins, J., Kato, K. & Boelens, W.C. (2005) Nuclear import of aB-crystallin is phosphorylation-dependent and hampered by the myopathy-related mutant R120G. J. Biol. Chem. 280: 37139-37148

Stamler, R., Kappé, G., Boelens, W.C. & Slingsby, C. (2005) . Wrapping the alpha-crystallin domain fold in a chaperone assembly. J. Mol. Biol. 353: 68-79

Wilfried W. de Jong is head of the Protein Biochemistry section of the NCMLS, and is Professor in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science, Mathematics and Computing Sciences at the Radboud University. He is also professor in Molecular Systematic Zoology at the University of Amsterdam.