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Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
Integrin signaling is critical for many biological functions including cell survival, cell migration, development, immunity and wound healing. Integrins perform their function through a structural change that is propagated from the...
Tissue engineering is one of the fastest growing biotechnology industries. The overarching research goals of the tissue engineering industry are highly intertwined with the field of medicine. The tissue engineering field seeks to create...
Muscle contraction is regulated at the thin filament level by tropomyosin (Tm) and the troponin complex (Tn). Tm is an α-helical coiled coil protein that forms a continuous strand on the actin filament through end-end interactions with...
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) offer an adaptive immune system that protects bacteria and archaea from nucleic acid invaders through an RNA-mediated nucleic acid cleavage mechanism. Our knowledge of...
The properties of proteins with reduced sequence complexity--either in the form of primary structure symmetry or restricted amino acid alphabets--are controversial. Studies of protein biophysics and sequence analyses suggest that...
Molecules containing the phosphate (O—PO32-) moiety are ubiquitous in biochemistry. Phosphoryl transfer reactions that break and form the O—P phosphoryl bond are central to biological processes as diverse as energy metabolism and signal...
M2 is an important drug target, this transmembrane protein forms a tetrameric proton channel essential for the life cycle of the Influenza A virus. The recent S31N mutation rendered this protein resistant to the used antiviral drugs, ...
Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Monitored by Liquid Chromatorgaphy Electrospray Ionization Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry—Method Optimization and Applications to the Study of Protein Conformation and Protein—Drug Interactions
Proteins are the most versatile macromolecules in the cell. Major biochemical functions of proteins include binding; catalysis; and serving as structural components of cells and organisms. Proteins are made of amino acids that are...
In eukaryotes and archaea 5-25% of transfer RNA (tRNA) precursors contain intervening sequences, or introns, that interrupt the molecules' functional regions. Because functional tRNA molecules are necessary for protein synthesis, ...
As an RNA-guided RNA modification enzyme, the box H/ACA RNP recruits the guide RNA to recognize the substrate RNA, whereas the protein partners carry out the catalysis. Most intriguingly, box H/ACA RNPs share the same four conserved...
Reversible protein phosphorylation plays an integral role in the regulation of eukaryotic cellular signaling, especially for transcription factors. Yin Yang 1 (YY1) is a ubiquitously expressed and highly conserved multifunctional...
Vortex waves are striking spatial-temporal patterns and observed in diverse systems, such as active galaxies, catalytic reactions, and even biological systems. In the heart, vortex patterns of electrical waves are linked to ventricular...
Myosin activity and actomyosin interaction play key roles in normal and pathological cardiac muscle contraction. Factors that modulate actomyosin have the potential to exert changes in cardiac contraction that may be necessary for normal...
The Adeno-Associated Virus has moved to the forefront as a vector for human gene therapy. Vectors have been constructed with AAV to repair many genetic deficiencies such as cystic fibrosis and hemophilia and have demonstrated remarkable...
Changes in environmental conditions cause alterations in the metabolism of cells. The field of metabolomics seeks to assay for and understand on a whole-cell level how metabolism responds to these changes. In this dissertation, a method...
Small helical membrane proteins are functionally very important. They are involved in many cellular transport and signal transduction pathways maintaining the chemical, mechanical and electrical potentials of cells. They constitute...
Over half of the proteins found in nature are anticipated to be glycosylated, yet less than 2% of the protein structures in the protein data bank are glycoproteins. Clearly, we are behind in our structural understanding of glycoproteins....
Targeting the Kv1.3 Ion Channel with Peptide Inhibitors and Nanoparticle Bioconjugates: Neuromodulation of the Olfactory Bulb and Its Influence on Whole-Body Metabolism
Electrical signaling in the olfactory bulb (OB) is modulated by changes in metabolic state. The voltage-gated potassium channel, Kv1.3, makes up 60 - 80% of the outward current flow in mitral cells (MCs), the primary projection neurons...
The development and experimental validation of a mathematical model for nanoparticle–based surface energy transfer (SET) between gold nanoparticles and fluorescent dye labels, has enabled biophysical studies of nucleic acid structure and...
Muscle generates force through the interaction between myosin cross-bridges and actin filaments. This study is part of a research project that aims to understand the molecular mechanism of force production through direct visualization of...
Human mesenchymal stem cells are a class of adult multipotent cells that are of interest to researchers for their clinical potential. While this cell type has been intensely investigated, there is still a significant amount to be learned...
Structural Characterizaton of Rv0008C: An Integral Membrane Protein from Mycobacterium Tuberculosis by Solution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
Tuberculosis, an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has been a leading cause of death in the world infecting over one third of the world population (WHO 1999). A detailed structural understanding of the membrane...
The innate immune system acts as the first line of defense against invading pathogens throughrecognition of pathogen associated molecular patterns or danger associated molecular patterns. Several germline encoded receptors, known as the...
Electrospray Ionization Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Biological Molecules: Oligoribonucleotide and Membrane Proteins
Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometry, with ultrahigh resolving power and ultrahigh mass accuracy, has been involved in many fields, in particular, environmental studies and biological sciences since its...
The metabolic makeup of a biological system is a key determinant of its biological state providing detailed insights into its function. Identification and quantification of the metabolites in a system form critical components of...
Collective protein structural transitions couple with fluctuations of their aqueous environment to enable biological function. Although decades of experiment have investigated protein-motion hy- dration couplings, atomistic details...
Non-canonical forms of DNA like the guanine quadruplex (G4) play important roles in regulating transcription and translation through interactions with their protein partners. G4s comprise a class of nucleic acid structures formed by...
Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) is the leading cause of sudden cardiac death in both preadolescents and adolescents. The hallmark of the disorder is myocardial hypertrophy of the left ventricle, which results in an obstruction...
Adeno-associated virus type-2 (AAV-2) is a leading candidate vector for gene therapy. My PhD is a part of the ongoing research project towards the long-term goals of engineering AAV to evade immune neutralization when repeated doses are...
Cargo trafficking using vesicles has been studied in eukaryotic cells for more than half a century. Three conventional and evolutionarily archaic pathways have since been identified. These pathways include: Coat Protein II (COPII), Coat...
Cell adhesion assemblies occur at sites where cells either contact each other or components related to the extracellular matrix. They provide the structural integrity needed to support nonmigrating cells via a host of transmembraneous...
3D Molecular Cytological and Genetic Analysis of the SUN-Domain (Sad1-Unc-84) Proteins in Maize (Zea Mays, L.) Meiosis; Discovery of a Novel Plant Sun Family, Including SUN3, a Candidate Gene for the Desynaptic1 (dy1) Mutant
Meiosis is the process by which sexually reproducing organisms reduce their genomes from diploid (2n) to haploid (n) during the formation of gametes. It requires that homologous chromosomes pair, synapse, recombine, and finally segregate...
Generation and Characterization of Fret Constructs of Cardiac Troponin C to Study Divalent Cation-Dependent Structural Changes and Develop a Ca2+ Sensor
Troponin C (TnC), the Ca2+ binding subunit in striated muscle, is central to regulation of contraction. Binding of Ca2+ to TnC results in a series of conformational changes in the different regulatory proteins, which ultimately leads to...
Myosin V, as a member of the myosin family, can "walk" along F-actin to transport many "cargos", such as mRNA and secretary vesicles, to its destination. This study is part of a research project that aims to understand the interaction...
The discovery of Cas9, a large protein that involves in all processes the type II system of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat, an adaptive immune system from bacteria and archaea, is a paradigm shifting molecular...
We use a lipid monolayer system to prepare paracrystalline rafts of F-actin with two different cross-linking proteins, α-actinin and villin. α-Actinin cross-links F-actin into relatively loose networks throughout cells, while villin...
Helical membrane proteins have been difficult targets for structural characterization but are ~30% of the typical genome. This dissertation is focused on the extension of solid state nuclear magnetic resonance methodology to be able to...
The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat loci found in most archaea and some bacteria contain DNA sequences (spacers) that originate from genetic invaders like viruses, transposons, and plasmids. The CRISPR clusters...
The Iron-dependent Regulator (IdeR) is a 230-amino acid transcriptional repressor that regulates iron homeostasis, oxidative stress response and virulence in Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The importance of IdeR for mycobacterial metabolism...
Molecular modeling of proteins and DNA is an attractive goal because it allows to gain insight into dynamic behavior of molecules on atomistic level. Such studies have a great potential to complement existing experimental techniques in...
The RNA splicing and processing endonuclease from Nanoarchaeum equitans (NEQ) belongs to the recently identified (ab)2 family of splicing endonucleases that require two different subunits for splicing activity. N. Equitans splicing...
Atomic structure determination of membrane proteins is an important problem. Because of the difficulties in crystallization and traditional NMR techniques using membrane proteins, other experimental methods are being developed and...
Protein function needs to get regulated in every organism, and mis-regulation of protein function can cause serious disease states. Regulation of protein function is essential for controlling and organizing many different cellular...
Voltage-gated potassium channels (Kv channels) play a vital roll in cellular excitability and neuronal communication by catalyzing the translocation of potassium ions across cellular membranes. After synthesis occurs in the endoplasmic...
Signaling through the notch pathway originates upon interaction between the notch receptor and one of its two ligand proteins, delta or serrate. Extracellular binding of either ligand protein induces the release of the notch...
Mass spectrometry, featured at high sensitivity, is an indispensable tool in the field of biophysics for studying intact protein and protein complex. Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance (FTICR) mass spectrometer offers unparalleled...
The trafficking of proteins between intracellular compartments must be tightly regulated in order to maintain cellular balance. Early secretion form the endoplasmic reticulum is mediated by a complex of five coat proteins forming the...
Electrostatics interactions are fundamental for protein stability and function, and play a crucial role upon protein-DNA binding. Both the protein and the DNA from a complex exhibit clear shape and electrostatic complementarity....
The M2 proton channel from Influenza A is an established drug target, with multiple functions during the viral lifecycle. Amino acid mutations, in the residues lining the channel pore, have rendered M2 resistant to previously licensed...
Hydrogen/Deuterium Exchange Monitored by Liquid Chromatorgaphy Electrospray Ionization Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry—Method Optimization and Applications to the Study of Protein Conformation and Protein—Drug Interactions
Proteins are the most versatile macromolecules in the cell. Major biochemical functions of proteins include binding; catalysis; and serving as structural components of cells and organisms. Proteins are made of amino acids that are...
Some of the material in is restricted to members of the community. By logging in, you may be able to gain additional access to certain collections or items. If you have questions about access or logging in, please use the form on the Contact Page.
