Bio-X
Graduate Student Fellowships 2006/2007
Peggy Yao
Biomedical Informatics
Professor J-C Latombe |
It is increasingly appreciated that protein function is not strictly related to its three dimensional structure of the folded state, but to its structural dynamics. Conformational changes occur in various biological events: protein folding upon the presence of appropriate ligand, protein-molecule recognition, enzyme catalysis and etc. Noting that these events are critical in maintaining normal metabolism, understanding protein structural motion is important in drug and protein design. However, there is no experimental technique existing that allows us to observe all proteins at atomic level in real time. Although NMR spectroscopy enables the visibility of dynamic properties of proteins, protein size is limited. Much effort has been paid to developing computational methods. But neither the problem is close to solved nor the solutions are accurate enough for practical usage. I would like to study protein structural dynamics using computer science and statistics techniques, starting from short loops, I will begin loop modeling and flexible protein docking. |
