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Structural and Chemical Biology @ Vanderbilt University |
Meiler Group Members
| Research Faculty | |
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Laura Mizoue Research Assistant Professor, Assistant Director of CSB , Ph.D. Biochemistr Research Interests Structural Characterization of HoxA11 |
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Eric Dawson Research Assistant Professor, Biochemistry, Education & Outreach CSB, Ph.D Research Interests Novel Schizophrenia Therapeutics by Virtual High-Throughput Screening Design of small molecule – protein interfaces |
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Jarrod Smith Research Associate Professor,Assistant Director of CSB , Ph.D. Research Interests BCL Align multiple sequence alignment and fold recognition |
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Joel Harp Research Interests |
| Post-Doctoral Fellow | |
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Jens Krause Research Interests |
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Edward W. Lowe Jr Ph.D. Biochemistry, University of South Florida Research Interests Novel Schizophrenia Therapeutics by Virtual High-Throughput Screening PharmMap |
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Brian Weiner Ph.D. Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University Research Interests |
| Research Assistant | |
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Carie Fortenberry B.S. and M.S. in Biochemistry from Tennessee Tech University Research Interests Protein production and characterization of computational designs. Structural Characterization of HoxA11 |
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William Graham Research Interests MSc student in Structural Molecular Biology via distance learning, Birkbeck College, London, England Professional Experience: Bioinformatics programming for the Vanderbilt Center for Human Genetics Research, 2007-2008 Bioinformatics programming for Immunex and Amgen, 2001-2007 |
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Jeff Mendenhall Research Interests |
| Graduate Student | |
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Kristian Kaufmann BS, WUStL & Greenville College Research Interests My research focuses prediction and design of protein small molecule interfaces using Rosetta. Rosetta currently allows rigid small molecule flexible protein side-chain docking and design. I am extending Rosettas capabilities to include small molecule flexibility. Design of small molecule – protein interfaces Computational Modeling of Serotonin Transporter |
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Mert Karakas BS, Sabanci University Research Interests High Resolution Contact Prediction |
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Ralf Mueller Diploma, University of Leipzig Research Interests NMR Chemical Shift Prediction from Three-Dimensional Structure Novel Schizophrenia Therapeutics by Virtual High-Throughput Screening |
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Nils Woetzel BS, University of Leipzig Research Interests Fitting molecules in low resolution electron density maps Development of energy-/scoring-functions determining native-like modeled protein structures |
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Mariusz Butkiewicz Diploma, University of Leipzig Research Interests Novel Schizophrenia Therapeutics by Virtual High-Throughput Screening |
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Andrew Morin BS. University of California at Davis Research Interests Computational Design of Novel Protein Therapeutics |
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Steffen Lindert Diploma, University of Leipzig Research Interests Cryo-EM guided de novo Protein Fold Elucidation |
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Julia Koehler Diploma, University of Leipzig Research Interests Protein Structure Prediction |
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Sten Heinze University of Leipzig Research Interests BCL Align multiple sequence alignment and fold recognition |
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Elizabeth Dong BS, Seattle Pacific University Research Interests BCL Align multiple sequence alignment and fold recognition BCL Align refinement for use with membrane proteins Comparative modeling of hERG and KCNQ1 with drugs causing long QT syndrome using Rosetta |
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Nathan Alexander Research Interests De novo High-Resolution Protein Structure Elucidation from sparse EPR Data |
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Gordon Lemmon B.S. Brigham Young University Research Interests Small molecule docking and design |
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David Nannemann BS, Hardin-Simmons University Research Interests Enzymes perform an interesting array of chemical reactions but are limited by substrate specificities. Computational methods allow for quick in silico screening of multi-mutant enzymes easing the burden in the wet-lab. Work is oriented towards application of RosettaLigand to switch substrate specificity and impart catalytic function on novel, non-natural substrates. |
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Kelli Kazmier B.S. Biochemistry, Beloit College Research Interests De novo High-Resolution Protein Structure Elucidation from sparse EPR Data I am developing a restraint prediction algorithm to design restraints for optimal impact in folding. I will be then be modeling integral membrane proteins of unknown structure using EPR distance data I collect in the laboratory of Dr. Hassane Mchaourab. |
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Steven Combs B.S. Chemistry, West Texas A&M University Research Interests The inner core of the protein is very well characterized. Because of this well defined problem, designing the inner core of the protein is relatively easy (no electrostatics, hydrophobic interactions/shape complimentary) and Rosetta has been relatively successful in the design of small proteins and their core. The successful de novo computational design of Top7 is an example of Rosetta designing a small protein, however, Top7 formed aggregates. Indeed, we see this problem with our own design of TIM Barrels (especially the quarter barrels). In addition to aggregates, the designed quarter barrels are unstable and degrade rapidly when left in buffer. Given this information, it is hypothesized that the surface of the designed proteins is poorly done.I am interested in designing salt bridges into proteins in order to increase stability and solubility of designed proteins. Also, our lab has created a sequence and fold symmetric protein. Currently, I am investigating methods to insert catalytic activity into the protein. |
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Thuy Nguyen BS Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Trinity University Research Interests Drug Discovery Novel Schizophrenia Therapeutics by Virtual High-Throughput Screening |
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Sam DeLuca B.S. Bioinformatics and Molecular Biology, Resnsselaer Polytechnic Institut Research Interests Computational high throughput screening, using QSAR to constrain small molecule docking. |
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Stephanie Hirst B.S. Chemistry, University of Alabama at Birmingham Research Interests De novo High-Resolution Protein Structure Elucidation from sparse EPR Data |
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Jordan Willis B.S. ACS Chemistry, B.A. Biology, Northwest Missouri State University Research Interests 1. High resolution binding energies associated with antibody neutralization of HIV. Using this binding energy to correlate neutralization of HIV we can design systematic mutations to engineer an antibody to regain neutralization of an antibody to a highly mutated HIV variant that has escaped neutralization. 2. Low Resolution homology modeling of neutralizing antibodies that we find in infectious blood. We can then use Rosetta Dock to find binding epitopes to rule out which of these epitopes are important in eliciting neutralizing antibody production. 3. Entropy/Enthalpy energy scoring to find out the importance of distal mutations that occur during affinity maturation that are not at the antigen binding interface. |
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George Rouvelas Research Interests |
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Gregory Sliwoski Research Interests |
| Rotation Student | |
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Pedro Teixeira B.A. Biochemical Sciences, Secondary Field- Computer Science, Harvard Research Interests Novel Schizophrenia Therapeutics by Virtual High-Throughput Screening Computational Models for Predicting Protein-Protein Interactions |
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Jordan Fritz Research Interests |
| Undergraduate Student | |
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Will Proffitt Research Interests |
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Stephen Oleszkiewicz Research Interests Novel Schizophrenia Therapeutics by Virtual High-Throughput Screening |
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Matthew Spellings Research Interests Developing quantitative structure-activity relationships using machine learning methods to predict drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic data |
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Joseph Crivelli Research Interests Computational Design of Novel Protein Therapeutics Protein-peptide interface design |