Data Collection to Structure Refinement and Beyond
Snakebite envenomation is a neglected tropical disease killing >135,000 people annually, predominantly in developing countries. Polyvalent antivenom is the only treatment, but it’s made through outdated technology. Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are the logical alternative for developing next-generation antivenom medicines. Here, we isolated a pair of antivenom mAbs that broadly cross-neutralized long and short chain three…
In this talk, I will review briefly the problem of protein folding, and how it may go wrong. I will then introduce broadly the cellular machines that take care of these problems and show how the combination of different experimental techniques with theory and computation can provide us with a satisfying description of the mechanism…
In recent years, the field of drug design has undergone a remarkable transformation due to advancements in computer hardware and algorithms. This talk will explore how computational biophysics tools are driving this revolution, ultimately accelerating therapeutic discovery. The presentation will commence with an introduction to various computational biophysics tools utilized in drug design, providing attendees…
The nitrilase superfamily, which includes amidases, are thiol enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis and condensation of non-peptide, carbon-nitrogen linkages. The mechanism of action of these enzymes remains unknown – but substantial insight has been gained from our studies of the closely related amidases. All the enzymes have a structurally conserved active site grouping comprising two…
Under conditions of extremely low pH, in addition to transporting lysine, the lysine-specific permease (LysP) interacts with the transcriptional regulator CadC to upregulate cadBA operon expression. cadBA encodes CadA, which decarboxylates lysine to cadaverine, and CadB, which exports the alkaline product (cadaverine) to the environment to reduce acidity. This process is crucial for bacterial survival…
Structural biology has been the most successful applications of physics to biology, providing atomic information on several thousands of macromolecules and complex macromolecular machines. Among these machines, I have always been fascinated by helicases, a family of proteins that act as molecular motors, using the energy from ATP hydrolysis to move along the DNA and…