Undergraduate Research Projects:
Oxidation Stress and Muscle Protein Structure and
Function
We cannot survive more than
minutes without oxygen—nor have we escaped vulnerability to
oxidative stress.
Disease and biological
aging are familiar contexts in which the role of
oxidative ‘damage’ to DNA, lipids, and proteins has been recognized, even
popularized by the promotion of antioxidants for longevity and
disease resistance.
Under normal conditions, too, cells sensitively detect and
respond to cellular redox state to maintain balance.
Our goal is to understand
how molecules sense,
respond, and are eventually damaged by oxidative stress.
We will examine how
post-translational protein modifications associated with
oxidative stress
trigger functional and structural changes in the proteins
involved in muscle contraction.
We will also test the role of antioxidant systems in
recovering protein function after oxidative modification.
Undergraduate projects will
focus on the impact of oxidative stress on protein structure and
function using a variety of techniques that include molecular
biology to create proteins for site-directed spectroscopy, cell
culture and protein expression, carrying out biochemical assays,
mass spectrometry and biophysical spectroscopy.
Project I:
Molecular Biology:
Create site-directed mutations in muscle protein DNA to
create labeling sites for spectroscopy and to test the impact of
mutation.
Qualifications include pursuit of a degree in science.
Project II: Biochemistry:
Measure the enzyme activity and protein-protein
interactions of muscle proteins with oxidative modifications.
Qualifications include pursuit of a degree in science,
with combined interests in biology and chemistry.
Project III: Biophysical Spectroscopy:
Use spectroscopy to measure muscle protein dynamics and
molecular distances (structure).
Qualifications include pursuit of a degree in science,
with overlapping interests in biology, chemistry or physics.
Project IIII: Computational Biophysics:
Carry out
computational molecular dynamics simulations of muscle
regulatory and contractile proteins.
Qualifications include pursuit of a degree in science,
with overlapping interests in biology, chemistry or physics.
Some experience with programming is desirable.