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Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California
230 Physical Sciences Bldg.
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
Phone: (831) 459-4002
Fax: (831) 459-2935
Email
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Anthony Fink Professor of Chemistry B.Sc., Ph.D., Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Fink Research Group Department of Chemistry University of California 1156 High Street Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Labs: 279/287 PSB, 9-2915 Fink Research Group

Remembering UCSC Professor Tony Fink
Tony Fink, UCSC's distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, passed away on March 3, 2008, following a year-long illness. During Tony's forty-year career in academia, he made many contributions to the field of biophysical chemistry. With more than 200 scientific publications, 20 book chapters, and three books, he was a world authority on protein folding. Mistakes in this molecular process lead to degenerative diseases such as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease. Tony's research was to understand what goes wrong and to design treatments to repair the damage or prevent it from happening. He worked tirelessly towards the goal of designing potential drugs and therapeutic methods to combat Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Tony was elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in 2004, won the BioSTAR Outreach Ambassador of the Year Award in 2002, as well as the Division of Physical & Biological Sciences' Outstanding Faculty Award in 2007.

The Fink laboratory will remain active during 2008, while Tony's students and assistants finish work in progress. The lab will be administered during this time by Professor Glenn Millhauser.
Those who wish to honor Professor Fink may do so by making a donation to the Tony Fink Memorial Fund to support students and research in Chemistry and Biochemistry. Donations can be sent to Attn: Tony Fink Memorial, 1156 High Street, MS: PBSci Development, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Fink, A. L. and Uversky, V. N., eds. (2007) “Protein misfolding, aggregation and conformational disease’ Part B: Molecular Mechanisms of Conformational Diseases”, Springer. Vol. 6 in the series Protein Reviews ed. M. Z. Atassi, Springer.

Qin, Z., Hu, D., Zhu, M., and Fink, A. L. (2007) Structural characterization of the partially folded intermediates of an immunoglobulin light chain leading to amyloid fibrillation and amorphous aggregation, Biochemistry 46, 3521-3531.

Martinez, Z., Zhu, M., Han, S., and Fink, A. L. (2007) GM1 specifically interacts with alpha-synuclein and inhibits fibrillation, Biochemistry 46, 1868-1877.

Qin, Z., Hu, D., Han, S., Reaney, S. H., Di Monte, D. A., and Fink, A. L. (2007) Effect of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal modification on alpha-synuclein aggregation, J Biol Chem 282, 5862-5870.

Munishkina, L. A. and Fink, A. L. (2007) Fluorescence as a method to reveal structures and membrane-interactions of amyloidogenic proteins, Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1768, 1862-1885.

Zhu, M., Qin, Z., Hu, D., Munishkina L. A. and Fink, A. L (2006) “a-Synuclein can function as an antioxidant preventing oxidation of unsaturated lipid in vesicles” 45, 8135-42

Hong, D, Ahmad, A. and Fink, A. L. (2006) “Fibrillation of Human Insulin A and B-Chains” Biochemistry 45, 9342-53.

Zhou W, Zhu M, Wilson M.A, Petsko G.A, Fink A.L. (2006) The oxidation state of DJ-1 regulates its chaperone activity toward alpha-synuclein. J Mol Biol. 356, 1036-48

Dusa A, Kaylor J, Edridge S, Bodner N, Hong DP, Fink AL. (2006) Characterization of Oligomers during alpha-Synuclein Aggregation Using Intrinsic Tryptophan Fluorescence. Biochemistry, 45, 2752-60.

Fink, A. L. (2006) The aggregation and fibrillation of alpha-synuclein, Acc. Chem Res. 39, 628-634.

Uversky, V. N., Fernandez, A. and Fink, A. L (2006) “Structural and Conformational Prerequisites of Amyloidogenesis” in Protein misfolding, aggregation and conformational disease’ Part A, Eds. Uversky V. and Fink, A., Springer.

Fink, A. L. (2006) “Factors affecting the fibrillation of a-synuclein, a natively unfolded protein” in Misbehaving Proteins, Eds. Murphy and Tsai

Fink, A. L. and Uversky, V. N., eds. (2006) “Protein misfolding, aggregation and conformational disease’ Part A: Protein Aggregation and Conformational Diseases”, Springer. Vol. 4 in the series Protein Reviews ed. M. Z. Atassi, Springer.

Uversky, V. N., Garriques, L. N., Millett, I. S., Frokjaer, S., Brange, J., Doniach, S., & Fink, A. L. (2003). Prediction of the association state of insulin using spectral parameters. J. Pharm. Sci.92, 847-858.

Abramov, V. M., Vasiliev, A. M., Khlebnikov, V. S., Vasilenko, R. N., Kulikova, N. L., Kosarev, I. V., Ishchenko, A. T., Gillespie, J. R., Millett, I. S., Fink, A. L., & Uversky, V. N. (2002). Structural and functional properties of Yersinia pestis Caf1 capsular antigen and their possible role in fulminant development of primary pneumonic plague. J. Proteome. Res.1, 307-315.

Zhu, M. & Fink, A. L. (2003). Lipid Binding Inhibits alpha -Synuclein Fibril Formation. J Biol Chem.278, 16873-16877.

Munishkina, L. A., Phelan, C., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2003). Conformational Behavior and Aggregation of alpha-Synuclein in Organic Solvents: Modeling the Effects of Membranes. Biochemistry42, 2720-2730.

Denning, D. P., Patel, S. S., Uversky, V., Fink, A. L., & Rexach, M. (2003). Disorder in the nuclear pore complex: the FG repeat regions of nucleoporins are natively unfolded. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A100, 2450-2455.

Yamin, G., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2003). Nitration inhibits fibrillation of human alpha-synuclein in vitro by formation of soluble oligomers. FEBS Lett.542, 147-152.

Berriman, J., Serpell, L. C., Oberg, K. A., Fink, A. L., Goedert, M., & Crowther, R. A. (2003). Tau filaments from human brain and from in vitro assembly of recombinant protein show cross-{beta} structure. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U. S. A100, 9034-9038.

Goers, J., Manning-Bog, A. B., McCormack, A. L., Millett, I. S., Doniach, S., Di Monte, D. A., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2003). Nuclear Localization of alpha-Synuclein and Its Interaction with Histones. Biochemistry42, 8465-8471.

Souillac, P. O., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2003). Structural Transformations of Oligomeric Intermediates in the Fibrillation of the Immunoglobulin Light Chain LEN. Biochemistry42, 8094-8104.

Yamin, G., Glaser, C. B., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2003). Certain Metals Trigger Fibrillation of Methionine-oxidized {alpha}-Synuclein. J Biol Chem278, 27630-27635.

Ahmad, A., Millet, I. S., Doniach, S., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2003). Partially-folded Intermediates in Insulin Fibrillation. Biochemistry42, 11404-16.

Goers, J., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2003). Polycation-induced oligomerization and accelerated fibrillation of human alpha-synuclein in vitro. Protein Sci12, 702-707.

Khurana, R., Ionescu-Zanetti, C., Pope, M., Li, J., Nielson, L., Ramirez-Alvarado, M., Regan, L., Fink, A. L., & Carter, S. A. (2003). A general model for amyloid fibril assembly based on morphological studies using atomic force microscopy. Biophys J85, 1135-1144.

Khurana, R., Souillac, P. O., Coats, A. C., Minert, L., Ionescu-Zanetti, C., Carter, S. A., Solomon, A., & Fink, A. L. (2003). A model for amyloid fibril formation in immunoglobulin light chains based on comparison of amyloidogenic and benign proteins and specific antibody binding.  Amyloid.10, 97-109.

Zhu, M., Li, J., & Fink, A. L. (2003). The association of alpha-synuclein with membranes affects bilayer structure, stability and fibril formation. J Biol Chem. 278, 40186-40197.

Li J, Zhu M, Manning-Bog, A., Di Monte, D., & Fink, A. L. (2004). Dopamine and L-dopa disaggregate amyloid fibrils: Implications for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. FASEB J18, 962-964.

Voropay E.S., Samtsov M.P., Kaplevsky K.N., Maskevich A.A., Stepuro V.I., Povarova O.I., Kuznetsova I.M., Tutoverov K.K., Fink A.L., Uversky V.N. (2003) Spectral properties of Thioflavine T and its complexes with amyloid fibrils. Journal of Applied Spectroscopy (Moscow)70, 765-773.

Uversky, V. N. & Fink, A. L. (2004). Conformational Constraints for Amyloid Fibrillation: The Importance of Being Unfolded. Biochim Biophys Acta. 1698, 131-153.

Munishkina, L. A., Henriques, J., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2004). Role of protein-water interactions and electrostatics in alpha-synuclein fibril formation. Biochemistry43, 3289-3300.

Ahmad, A., Millett, I. S., Doniach, S., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2004). Stimulation of insulin fibrillation by urea-induced intermediates. J Biol. Chem279, 14999-15013.

Hokenson, M. J., Uversky, V. N., Goers, J., Yamin, G., Munishkina, L. A., & Fink, A. L. (2004). Role of individual methionines in the fibrillation of methionine-oxidized alpha-synuclein. Biochemistry43, 4621-33.

Zhu, M., Han, S., Zhou, F., Carter, S. A., & Fink, A. L. (2004). Annular oligomeric amyloid intermediates observed by In-situ AFM. J Biol. Chem. 279, 24452-24459.

Zhu, M., Rajamani, S., Kaylor, J., Han, S., Zhou, F., and Fink, A. L. (2004) The Flavonoid Baicalein Inhibits Fibrillation of alpha-Synuclein and Disaggregates Existing Fibrils, J. Biol. Chem. 279, 26846-26857.

Munishkina, L. A., Fink, A. L., and Uversky, V. N. (2004) Conformational prerequisites for formation of amyloid fibrils from histones, J. Mol. Biol. 342, 1305-1324.

Munishkina, L. A., Cooper, E. M., Uversky, V. N., and Fink, A. L. (2004) The effect of macromolecular crowding on protein aggregation and amyloid fibril formation, J. Mol. Recognit. 17, 456-464.

Li, J., Zhu, M., Rajamani, S., Uversky, V. N. and Fink, A. L. (2004) Rifampicin Inhibits a-Synuclein Fibrillation and Disaggregates Fibrils, Chem. Biol.11, 1513-1521.

Fink, A. L. (2005) Natively unfolded proteins, Curr. Opin. Struct. Biol.15, 35-41.

Uversky, V. N., Yamin, G., Munishkina, L. A., Karymov, M. A., Millett, I. S., Doniach, S., Lyubchenko, Y. L., and Fink, A. L. (2005) Effects of nitration on the structure and aggregation of alpha-synuclein, Brain Res. Mol. Brain Res. 134, 84-102.

Glaser, C. B., Yamin, G., Uversky, V. N., & Fink, A. L. (2005). Methionine Oxidation, alpha-Synuclein and Parkinson’s Disease. BBA 1703 157– 169.

Yamin, G., Munishkina, L. A., Karymov, M. A., Lyubchenko, Y. L., Uversky, V. N., and Fink, A. L. (2005) Forcing Nonamyloidogenic beta-Synuclein To Fibrillate, Biochemistry 44, 9096-9107.

Hong, D. P. and Fink, A. L. (2005) Independent heterologous fibrillation of insulin and its B-chain Peptide, Biochemistry44, 16701-16709.

Ahmad, A., Uversky, V. N., Hong, D., and Fink, A. L. (2005) Early events in the fibrillation of monomeric insulin, J. Biol Chem.280, 42669-42675.

Kaylor, J., Bodner, N., Edridge, S., Yamin, G., Hong, D. P., and Fink, A. L. (2005) Characterization of oligomeric intermediates in alpha-synuclein fibrillation: FRET studies of Y125W/Y133F/Y136F alpha-synuclein, J. Mol Biol353, 357-372.

Liu, I. H., Uversky, V. N., Munishkina, L. A., Fink, A. L., Halfter, W., and Cole, G. J. (2005) Agrin binds alpha-synuclein and modulates alpha-synuclein fibrillation, Glycobiology 15, 1320-1331.

Zhou, W., Zhu, M., Wilson, M. A., Petsko, G. A., and Fink, A. L. (2006) The Oxidation State of DJ-1 Regulates its Chaperone Activity Toward alpha-Synuclein, J. Mol Biol356, 1036-1048.

Dusa, A., Kaylor, J., Edridge, S., Bodner, N., Hong, D. P., and Fink, A. L. (2006) Characterization of Oligomers during alpha-Synuclein Aggregation Using Intrinsic Tryptophan Fluorescence, Biochemistry 45, 2752-2760.