• Site Map
• Campus Map
• A-Z Index
• Staff Intranet
• Contacts

Research Interests

Protein misfolding and its association with diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

Amyloid fibril formation and ways in which it can be prevented

The small heat shock family of molecular chaperone proteins and their regulation

Representative Publications

H. Ecroyd, and J. A. Carver. (2009) Crystallin proteins and amyloid fibrils. Cell Mol Life Sci. 66, 62-81.

D. C. Thorn, H. Ecroyd and J. A. Carver. (2009) The two faced nature of casein milk proteins: amyloid fibril formation and chaperone-like activity. Aust J Dairy Technol. 64, 34-40.

H. Ecroyd, and J. A. Carver. (2008) Unravelling the mysteries of protein folding and misfolding. IUBMB Life. 60, 769-774.

H. Ecroyd, T. Koudelka, D.C. Thorn, G. Devlin, D. Williams, P. Hoffmann and J.A. Carver. (2008) Dissociation from the oligomeric state is the rate-determing step in amyloid fibril formation by kappa-casein. J Biol Chem 283, 9012-9022.

H. Ecroyd and J.A. Carver. (2008) The effect of small molecules on the chaperone activity of alphaB-crystallin against ordered and disordered forms of aggregation. FEBS J. 275, 935-947.

D.C. Thorn, H. Ecroyd, M. Sunde, S. Poon and J.A. Carver. (2008) Amyloid fibril formation by bovine milk alphaS2-casein occurs under physiological conditions yet is prevented by its natural counterpart, alphaS1-casein. Biochemistry 47, 3926-3936.

H. Ecroyd, S. Meehan, J. Horwitz, J.A. Aqulina, J.L. Benesch, C.V. Robinson, C.E. MacPhee and J.A. Carver. (2007) Mimicking phosphorylation of alphaB-crystallin affects its chaperone activity. Biochem J. 401, 129-141.

T. M. Treweek, H. Ecroyd, D.M. Williams, S. Meehan, J.A. Carver and M.J. Walker. (2007) Site-directed mutations in the C-Terminal extension of human alphaB-crystallin affect chaperone function and block amyloid fibril formation. PLoS ONE. 17: e1046.

Suggested Topics for Future Students

Investigating the role of phosphorylation in regulating the chaperone activity of small heat shock proteins in order to prevent amyloid fibril formation

Investigating the mechanism by which amyloid fibrils are formed from the casein proteins

Identifying novel inhibitors of amyloid fibril formation and the cytotoxicity associated with this process

Abbreviated CV

2009-Present Lecturer,

School of Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong

2009-Present Adjunct Lecturer

School of Chemistry and Physics, University of Adelaide

2005-2008 NHMRC Peter Doherty Fellow,

School of Chemistry and Physics, University of Adelaide

2003-2004 Post-doctoral Fellow,

Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Tours-Nouzilly, France

2000-2003 PhD,

School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle