Meytal Landau is a Leading Scientist at DESY, at the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB). She is also a full Professor at the Center for Experimental Medicine (ZEM) at the Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), and a Visiting Associated Group Leader at EMBL Hamburg. Landau is also a Visiting Associated Professor at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Amongst other distinctions, she received the Biophysical Society’s Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award (2019) and the Wolf Foundation’s Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research (2018).

Her research primarily focuses on protein fibers that possess robust structures, such as amyloids, which are commonly associated with neurodegenerative diseases but are also secreted by various species across different kingdoms of life to aid in physiological functions and survival. For instance, certain microbial amyloids increase the aggressiveness of infections. The Landau and other labs have only started to uncover the mysteries surrounding the functions and structures of these functional fibrils, and they are working towards revealing new concepts related to their structure-function relationships, mechanisms of action, interactions, modulation, and design. To aid in their research, they are utilizing advanced infrastructures at DESY and the CSSB, including the DESY PETRAIII synchrotron. This research has the potential to facilitate the development of antivirulence drugs and durable antimicrobials for the coating of medical devices, food packaging, water pipes, and other surfaces that are susceptible to resilient and aggressive pathogens. Additionally, the findings may shed light on the molecular basis of the amyloid-antimicrobial link and reveal a potential role in neuroimmunity for pathological amyloids in humans.

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