Detail

Lab Name:  Protein Design & Protein Materials Lab

Introduction

Our laboratory focuses on design and structural characterization of supramolecular protein assemblies that can be toward to make cellular and molecular therapies effective and practical approaches eventually to treat disease. Protein-based biomaterials designed by utilizing the tools of De Novo protein design (rational and computational designs) are used to study the mechanisms by which chemical or mechanical signals are sensed by cells and alter cell function. These biomaterials that interface with nanoscience are used to deliver drugs safely and efficiently; to prevent, detect, and treat disease; to assist the body as it heals; and to engineer functional tissues outside of the body for organ replacement. Our biomaterials are now designed rationally or computationally with controlled assembly structure and dynamic functionality to integrate with biological complexity and perform tailored, high-level functions in the body. Design of new biomaterials provides desirable cues in a variety of tissue engineering, immunotherapy and drug delivery to promote the regeneration or targeted destruction of tissues and organs in the body.

Selected Recent Publications

1. Yong Ho Kim, Jason E. Donald, Gevorg Grigoryan, George P. Leser , Alexander Y. Fadeev, Robert A. Lamb, and William F. DeGrado, “Capture and Imaging of the Pre-hairpin Intermediate in Viral Membrane Fusion of the Paramyxovirus PIV5”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108: 20992-20997, 2011.

2. Gevorg Grigoryan*, Yong Ho Kim*, Rudresh Acharya, Kevin Axelrod, Rishabh M. Jain, Lauren Willis, Marija Drndic, James M. Kikkawa, and William F. DeGrado, “Computational Design of Virus-like Protein Assemblies on Carbon Nanotube Surfaces”, Science 332: 1071-1076, 2011 *- Authors contributed equally.

3. Ivan V. Korendovych, Yong Ho Kim, Andrew H. Ryan, James D. Lear, William F. DeGrado, and Scott J. Shandler, “Computational Design of a Self-Assembling β-Peptide Oligomer”, Organic Letters 12: 5142, 2010. 

4. Ivan V. Korendovych, Alessandro Senes, Yong Ho Kim, James D. Lear, H. Christopher Fry, Michael J. Therien, J. Kent Blasie, F. Ann Walker, and William F. DeGrado, “De Novo Design and Molecular Assembly of a Transmembrane Diporphyrin-Binding Protein Complex”, Journal of the American Chemical Society 132: 15516, 2010.