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Caroline Kisker, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pharmacological Sciences.
Funding through the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences.
Maintenance of the correct genetic information is crucial for all living
organisms. Mutations are the primary cause of hereditary diseases, as
well as cancer, and may also be involved in the aging process. Nucleotide
excision repair is able to recognize a wide variety of different defects.
Our laboratory focuses on the excision repair system mediated by UvrABC,
and is characterizing the individual proteins and their complexes, both
with and without their substrates, to understand how substrate recognition
is achieved (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Ribbon presentation of
UvrB, one of the proteins involved in nucleotide excision repair.
The ATP molecule bound at the interface between two domains
is indicated in all-bonds representation. |
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A second area of research involves the molybdenum-cofactor containing
enzymes. In humans, genetic deficiencies of sulfite oxidase and xanthine
dehydrogenase lead to severe abnormalities. Researchers here are characterizing
both enzymes on the atomic level to understand their catalytic mechanisms
and to elucidate the structural changes caused by mutations, which lead
to the described deficiencies.
Our laboratory would provide an ideal opportunity for an undergraduate
who has a background in physics or physical chemistry and is familiar
with computers. Two specific projects are available. One will be a study
of the crystallization of a new protein or a variant of the wild type.
The student will try to obtain crystals of a protein of interest. As soon
as crystals are obtained, data will be collected at the National Synchrotron
Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory at beamline X26C. A second
project will be a structure-based drug design study. Our research group
recently solved a structure of a protein/drug complex and aim towards
a detailed understanding of important protein-drug interactions. Such
an understanding will allow us to suggest modifications in the existing
drug to overcome resistance.
Student Background: The ideal student will be on that is familiar with
computers and is interested in participaing in research which combines
wetlab work with computational work. The student should have some basic
knowledge about proteins and/or DNA.
Contact Information
email: kisker@pharm.sunysb.edu
url: http://www.pharm.sunysb.edu/faculty/kisker/
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