Macromolecular Assemblies

A current emphasis in molecular biology is the characterization of the structure, assembly and function of large macromolecular complexes. These complexes are involved in diverse biological processes including energy transduction, cell signaling, the immune response, protein synthesis and folding, viral replication and transmission of genetic information. A combination of structural, biophysical, and functional data is required to construct a mechanistic understanding of macromolecular complexes and to effectively target these entities for therapeutic intervention. The broad range of expertise available at UConn Structural Biology provide a perfect environment for such multi-displinary research. Several programs that focused on the structure of macromolecular assemblies are underway, including: viral protein complexes and capsid assembly, signal transduction, assembly of immune complexes, protein-nucleic acid interactions, the extracellular matrix, motor proteins, protein folding and amyloid formation.

Structural Biology of Membrane Proteins

A variety of biologically significant processes are carried out by proteins that reside within membranes. Genomic analyses indicate that 25 - 40% of all proteins are membrane proteins. Despite their biological significance and their abundance, membrane proteins account for less than 1% of the high-resolution structures in the data bank due to the formidable technical hurdles associated with expression, purification and structure determination of proteins that are insoluble in water. There is a pressing need for new technologies to accelerate the pace of membrane protein structural biology and UConn Structural Biology is poised to capture a leadership role in this emerging field. Our programs include the structural biology of G-protein coupled receptors, photosynthesis and vision related pigment-protein complexes, complexes involved in the transport of proteins and lactose across the membrane, and the state-of-the-art bio-electronic applications using bacterial membrane protein bacteriorhodopsin as the core component.

Computational Biology and Modeling

Computational biology encompasses a growing range of research areas including bioinformatics, data analysis, and modeling of biological mechanisms and structures. Computation has become an integral component of structural biology. Current research topics in computational biology at UConn include quantum mechanical approaches to model light-induced biochemical reactions at the molecular level, simulations of membrane protein molecular dynamics that shed light on the signal transduction cascades involved in vision, improved data processing for techniques used in the study of molecular structure and dynamics such as NMR and analytical ultracentrifugation and methods for molecular structure calculation from sparse data and structure prediction.