Journal of Clinical & Experimental Pharmacology

Florin Despa

Florin Despa
Department of Pharmacology
The University of California, USA

Biography

Florin Despa, is a professor working in Department of Pharmacology, at University of California. His Research Interest includes hydrophobic interactions, amyloid formation and molecular crowding effects on protein folding and stability An important accomplishment of his past work is finding that hydrophobic forces, the main contributors to the interactions between biomolecules, can be saturated by polarization effects induced by the local aqueous environment.

Research Interest

I  maintain an active interest in the area of hydrophobic interactions, amyloid formation and molecular crowding effects on protein folding and stability. An important accomplishment of my past work is finding that hydrophobic forces, the main contributors to the interactions between biomolecules, can be saturated by polarization effects induced by the local aqueous environment, thus making possible the control of these interactions. The results are important in designing synthetic molecular chaperones for augmenting the repair of injured cells. Another application of this finding is the realization that isomers with increased hydrophobicity (amyloidogenic peptides) can be discriminated from normally folded proteins based on the solvation properties. This observation is currently developed into a MRI based protocol that enables the detection of embryonic amyloid entities, the early state of many degenerative diseases.