SunnyLand Research

Research at the Interface of Chemistry and Biology

The research in our laboratory is in chemical biology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and protein engineering, centering on two areas at the interface of chemistry and biology. The first area focuses on mechanistic study of and inhibitor design for biologically important enzymes. We are currently studying the bacterial enzyme LuxS, which plays a pivotal role in bacterial quorum sensing, biofilm formation, virulence regulation, and metabolism. Absent in humans, the LuxS enzyme is an attractive target for anti-infective agent development. The second area involves characterization of protein post-translational modifications and selective derivatization of proteins. More specifically, we are interested in protein methylations. S-adenosylmethionine-dependent methylations result in a myriad of crucial biological functions. We are devising new methods to detect and quantify such modifications. Additionally, we are developing robust colorimetric assays for methyltransferases, which allow screening for novel methyltransferase activities as part of our effect in functional proteomics research.

Research opportunities are available for postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate and graduate students. A wide spectrum of techniques are applied in our research, including organic synthesis, drug design, protein expression and purification, enzyme assay and inhibitor screening, protein chemistry, and mass spectrometry. Please check the link to the open positions for details.