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17
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Introduction
Motivated and enthusiastic scientist with 9+ years of laboratory experience. Extensive experience using multidimensional solution NMR to investigate small molecules, peptides, and proteins. Additionally skilled in other biophysical techniques including isothermal calorimetry and circular dichroism. Several years experience in the expression and purification of labeled proteins.
Current institution
Education
January 2022 - March 2023
December 2019 - February 2023
July 2015 - December 2020
Publications
Publications (17)
Protein-protein interactions and the complexes thus formed are critical elements in a wide variety of cellular events that require an atomic-level description to understand them in detail. Such complexes typically constitute challenging systems to characterize and drive the development of innovative biophysical methods. NMR spectroscopy techniques...
Magnetic ionic liquids (MILs) have recently generated a cascade of innovative applications in numerous areas of analytical chemistry. By incorporating a paramagnetic component within the cation or anion, MILs exhibit a strong response toward external magnetic fields. Careful design of the MIL structure has yielded magnetoactive compounds with uniqu...
The pathological deposition of proteins is a hallmark of several devastating neurodegenerative diseases. These pathological deposits comprise aggregates of proteins that adopt distinct structures named strains. However, the molecular factors responsible for the formation of distinct aggregate strains are unknown. Here, we show that the serine/threo...
Amidines are an isostere of the amide bond and are completely unexplored in peptide secondary structure. This study marks the first investigation of the structural implications of amidines in folded helices. Amidines were found to engage in hydrogen-bonding interactions that are compatible with helical structure. The protic state of the amidine is...
Alkbh5 catalyzes demethylation of the N ⁶ -methyladenosine (m ⁶ A), an epigenetic mark that controls several physiological processes including carcinogenesis and stem cell differentiation. The activity of Alkbh5 comprises two coupled reactions. The first reaction involves decarboxylation of α-ketoglutarate (αKG) and formation of a Fe ⁴⁺ ═O species....
The fine-tuning of transcription factor DNA-binding activity is often governed by transient intramolecular interactions between the transactivation domain and the DNA-binding domain. An example of such interaction is found in the transcription factor ATF4, a central regulator of the Integrated Stress Response. In ATF4, dynamic coupling between the...
The Alkbh7 protein, a member of the Alkylation B (AlkB) family of dioxygenases, plays a crucial role in epigenetic regulation of cellular metabolism. This paper focuses on the NMR backbone resonance assignment of Alkbh7, a fundamental step in understanding its three-dimensional structure and dynamic behavior at the atomic level. Herein, we report t...
The fat mass and obesity-associated fatso (FTO) protein is a member of the Alkb family of dioxygenases and catalyzes oxidative demethylation of N ⁶ -methyladenosine (m ⁶ A), N ¹ -methyladenosine (m ¹ A), 3-methylthymine (m ³ T), and 3-methyluracil (m ³ U) in single-stranded nucleic acids. It is well established that the catalytic activity of FTO pr...
The pathological deposition of proteins is a hallmark of several devastating neurodegenerative diseases. These pathological deposits comprise aggregates of proteins that adopt distinct structures named strains. However, the molecular factors responsible for the formation of distinct aggregate strains are unknown. Here we show that the serine/threon...
The fat-mass and obesity-associated FTO protein catalyzes demethylation of the N⁶-methyladenosine (m⁶A), an epigenetic mark that controls several metabolic pathways by modulating the transcription, translation, and cellular localization of RNA molecules. Since the discovery that its overexpression links to the development of obesity and cancer, FTO...
Enzyme I (EI) of the bacterial phosphotransferase system (PTS) is a master regulator of bacterial metabolism and a promising target for development of a new class of broad-spectrum antibiotics. The catalytic activity of EI is mediated by several intradomain, interdomain, and intersubunit conformational equilibria. Therefore, in addition to its rele...
Protein conformational dynamics play fundamental roles in regulation of enzymatic catalysis, ligand binding, allostery, and signaling, which are important biological processes. Understanding how the balance between structure and dynamics governs biological function is a new frontier in modern structural biology and has ignited several technical and...
Various fusion tags are commonly employed to increase the heterologous expression and solubility of aggregation-prone proteins within Escherichia coli. Herein, we present a protocol for efficient recombinant expression and purification of the human RNA demethylases Alkbh5 and FTO. Our method incorporates a novel fusion tag (the N-terminal domain of...
N6-methyladenosine (m6A) is the most abundant and reversible post-transcriptional modification in eukaryotic mRNA and long non-coding RNA (lncRNA). The central role of m6A in various physiological processes has generated considerable biological and pharmacological interest. Alkbh5 (AlkB homologue 5) belongs to the AlkB family and is a non-heme Fe(I...
AlkB homolog 5 (Alkbh5) is one of nine members of the AlkB family, which are nonheme Fe²⁺/α-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases that catalyze the oxidative demethylation of modified nucleotides and amino acids. Alkbh5 is highly selective for the N⁶-methyladenosine modification, an epigenetic mark that has spawned significant biological and pharmac...
In this study, a series of magnetic ionic liquids (MILs) were investigated for the extraction and preconcentration of bacteria from aqueous samples. By dispersing small volumes (e.g., 15 μL) of MIL within an aqueous cell suspension, bacteria were rapidly extracted and isolated using a magnetic field. Of the seven hydrophobic MILs examined, the trih...
