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Updated: Jul 6, 2026

Characterizing Individual Protein Aggregates by Infrared Nanospectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy
Published on: September 12, 2019
Genetic engineering combined with deep UV resonance Raman spectroscopy for structural characterization of
Vitali Sikirzhytski1, Natalya I Topilina, Seiichiro Higashiya
1Department of Chemistry, University at Albany, SUNY, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, New York 12222, USA.
Abstract:
Elucidating the structure of the cross-beta core in large amyloid fibrils is a challenging problem in modern structural biology. For the first time, a set of de novo polypeptides was genetically engineered to form amyloid-like fibrils with similar morphology and yet different strand length. Differential ultraviolet Raman spectroscopy allowed for separation of the spectroscopic signatures of the highly ordered beta-sheet strands and turns of the fibril core. The relationship between Raman frequencies and Ramachandran dihedral angles of the polypeptide backbone indicates the nature of the beta-sheet and turn structural elements.
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