Conformational Diseases and Therapeutics Research Laboratory

Valerie M. Berthelier, PhD

Assistant Professor
Conformational Diseases and Therapeutics Research

Education

Graduate School
University of Paris 7, France
MS Biochemistry (1992),
Diploma of Graduate Study in Molecular Biophysics (1993)
PhD in Molecular Biophysics (1998)

Post-Graduate
Post-Doctoral Research Associate, UT Graduate School of medicine, (1998-2004)

Other Experiences and Professional Memberships

2003-present Member, Society of Neurosciences
2004-present Member, The Protein Society
2004-present Member, American Chemical Society
2006-present UT Adjunct Faculty, UT- ORNL Genome Science and Technology Graduate Program

Honors and Awards

Cold Spring Harbor fellowship, training on molecular approaches to ion channel structure, expression and function, USA (1994)
NATO fellowship, Symposium on signal transduction, Spezai, Greece (1996)       
Division of Research and Technical Studies fellowship, Paris, France (1995-1998)
Ph.D with distinctions (1998)
Young Investigator Travel Award, CAG triplet repeats Gordon Conference, Mount Holyoke, MA (2005)

On-going Research Support

NIH/NINDS - 1R21 NS056325-01A1 (12/15/2007 – 11/30/2009)                                                                            
Small molecules as modulators of polyglutamine aggregation
The major goal of this project is to identify small chemical molecules that can affect the conformation of polyglutamine aggregates and lead to the discovery of potential treatment.

LDRD – ORNL Subcontract 3310-2943 (11/01/2008 – 08/31/2010)
Structure and Biophysics of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins
Scientific research and development involving the production, purification, and biophysical characterization of intrinsically disordered proteins for neutron scattering studies at ORNL

Current Presentations

Berthelier V. Searching for small molecules as potent inhibitors of Z-AAT Presented at Alpha-1 Foundation Investigators’ Meeting; 2014 Oct 17; Miami, FL.

Berthelier V. The Early Intermediates Revealed: Structural Characterization of Huntingtin Exon1 Presented at 20th International Analytical Ultracentrifugation Conference; 2012 Mar 20-30; San Antonio, TX.

Berthelier V. The Early Intermediates Revealed: Structural Characterization of Huntingtin Exon1 Presented at 20th International Analytical Ultracentrifugation Conference 2012; 2012 Mar 25-30; San Antonio, TX.