g-Secretase is one of two proteases responsible for the generation of the Alzheimer´s disease causing amyloid b-peptide (Ab).Understanding the precise mechanism of Ab generation is crucial for drug targeting the disease.

The Alzheimer Research Award of the Hans and Ilse Breuer Foundation strongly supports our research activities on an in-depth functional and structural characterization of g-secretase. This ambitious project concentrates on the purification of g-secretase and the analysis of its molecular architecture, on the role of modulatory interactors of g-secretase, such as CD147 and TMP21, on the identification of additional g- secretase modifiers, on the identification and characterization of g-secretase substrate and modulator binding sites, as well as on g-secretase subunit structure-function analyses.