Professor Tuomas Knowles | Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry

Professor of Physical Chemistry and Biophysics

1920 Professor of Physical Chemistry

Our research

We study the physical and chemical aspects of the behaviour of biopolymers and other soft systems. Much of our work has been focused on the physical aspects underlying the self-assembly of protein molecules. Self-organisation is the driving force generating complex matter in nature, and the process by which the machinery providing functionality in living systems is assembled. The goal of our research is to understand the physical and chemical factors which control the structures and dynamics of biomolecular assemblies, and the connections between the nanoscale characteristics of the component molecules and the physical properties of large-scale assemblies and their behaviour on a mesoscopic to macroscopic scale. The techniques used in our laboratory include biosensors, optical lithography, microfluidic devices and scanning probe microscopy and spectroscopy. We work both with natural and synthetic polymers and our interests range from fundamental chemical physics to technological applications in material science and molecular medicine.

Watch Professor Knowles discuss his research

Take a tour of the Sir Rodney Sweetnam laboratory

Publications

A general reaction network unifies the aggregation behaviour of the A$\beta$42 peptide and its variants

G Meisl, X Yang, CM Dobson, S Linse, TPJ Knowles

(2016)

(doi: 10.48550/arxiv.1604.00828)

Analysis of the length distribution of amyloid fibrils by centrifugal sedimentation.

P Arosio, T Cedervall, TPJ Knowles, S Linse

Anal Biochem

(2016)

504

7

(doi: 10.1016/j.ab.2016.03.015)

Kinetic analysis reveals the diversity of microscopic mechanisms through which molecular chaperones suppress amyloid formation

P Arosio, TCT Michaels, S Linse, C Månsson, C Emanuelsson, J Presto, J Johansson, M Vendruscolo, CM Dobson, TPJ Knowles

Nature Communications

(2016)

7

10948

(doi: 10.1038/ncomms10948)

Quantitative thermophoretic study of disease-related protein aggregates

M Wolff, JJ Mittag, TW Herling, ED Genst, CM Dobson, TPJ Knowles, D Braun, AK Buell

Sci Rep

(2016)

6

22829

(doi: 10.1038/srep22829)

Microfluidic Diffusion Viscometer for Rapid Analysis of Complex Solutions

P Arosio, K Hu, FA Aprile, T Müller, TPJ Knowles

Analytical Chemistry

(2016)

88

3488

(doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b02930)

An Environmentally Sensitive Fluorescent Dye as a Multidimensional Probe of Amyloid Formation.

EV Yates, G Meisl, TPJ Knowles, CM Dobson

Journal of Physical Chemistry B

(2016)

120

2087

(doi: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b09663)

A Fragment-Based Method of Creating Small-Molecule Libraries to Target the Aggregation of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins.

P Joshi, S Chia, J Habchi, TPJ Knowles, CM Dobson, M Vendruscolo

ACS Comb Sci

(2016)

18

144

(doi: 10.1021/acscombsci.5b00129)

Oligomers of Heat-Shock Proteins: Structures That Don't Imply Function

WM Jacobs, TPJ Knowles, D Frenkel

PLoS Comput Biol

(2016)

12

e1004756

(doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004756)

Consistent Treatment of Hydrophobicity in Protein Lattice Models Accounts for Cold Denaturation

E van Dijk, P Varilly, TPJ Knowles, D Frenkel, S Abeln

Physical Review Letters

(2016)

116

078101

(doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.078101)

Kinetic model of the aggregation of alpha-synuclein provides insights into prion-like spreading.

M Iljina, GA Garcia, MH Horrocks, L Tosatto, ML Choi, KA Ganzinger, AY Abramov, S Gandhi, NW Wood, N Cremades, CM Dobson, TPJ Knowles, D Klenerman

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

(2016)

113

E1206

(doi: 10.1073/pnas.1524128113)