Research Overview
My research focus on developing detailed understanding of protein interactions with their ligand(s) in general (ligand = Protein, Peptide, DNA, RNA, small molecules, metals, etc), and in particular Protein-Protein Interactions, for Biomedical and Industrial applications. My research goals are to design specific and potent drugs for specific protein targets (Drug Design) and to design novel proteins for therapeutical and/or industrial purposes (Protein Design/Engineering).
Research Themes & Techniques
My present research projects consist of investigating the structure, assembly, export activity and drug design of several bacterial efflux pumps, which are becoming the most frequent drug resistance mechanism in bacteria. Bacterial drug resistance is a serious worldwide problem that causes death, great suffering, and high economic cost.
Research Themes:
* Bacterial Multidrug Resistance (Drug Design Strategies)
* Bacterial Efflux Pumps (Structure, Assembly & Export Mechanism)
* Type 4 Secretion Systems in Gram-Positive Bacteria (Structure, Assembly & Activity Mechanism)
Research Techniques:
* Cellular & Molecular Biology (Cloning, Mutagenesis, Protein Expression/Purification, In-vivo Assays, etc)
* Protein/Protein-Ligand Structure, Dynamics & Function (Experimental & Computational Approaches)
* Drug Design Strategies & Applications (Computational & Experimental Approaches)
* Molecular Modelling (Structure, MD simulation, Binding & Stability Energetics, Biomolecular Interaction)
* Bioinformatics (Data mining, Databases, scripting/programing)
Some Examples of Experimental Techniques
