Wenxun Gan ¸ÊÎÄÑ«

  PhD Candidate
  Department of Chemistry
  The University of Chicago


I'm a graduate student working with Professor Benoit Roux.  We use computational chemistry to study the structure, dynamics and function of complex biological systems. I'm particularly interested in a small protein domain called the SH2 domain, and any SH2 domain-containing proteins that are known to play important roles in intracellular signal transduction. Currently my projects include 1) using molecular dynamics (MD) free energy simulations to investigate the binding specificity of various SH2 domains and 2) applying the string method to study the conformational change and activation mechanism of Src tyrosine kinase (PDB: 2SRC/1Y57). In addition to applying computational methods to solving biological problems, I also have broad interests in methodological development which I hope may become part of my future work. Methods that can accelarate conventional MD simulations, enhance the sampling of MD, or help the crossing of energy barriers are of particular interest to me.

A short bio: Born in Huanggang, Hubei Province, China in September 1983. B.S. from the College of Chemistry of Peking University in July 2005 and M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Chicago in August 2006.

Contact Information

Center for Integrative Sciences Room W312
929 E. 57th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: (773)834-4458      Email: gan@uchicago.edu

Research

more details coming up soon....

The SH2 domain (cartoon style) from human p56-lck tyrosine kinase bound with a short phosphopeptide pYEEI (stick style), PDB code: 1LKK. The SH2 domain (cartoon, green) from human p56-lck tyrosine kinase bound with a short phosphopeptide pYEEI (stick). PDB code: 1LKK, generated by PyMol





Inactive (left) and active (right) structure of the human c-Src tyrosine kinase.
(PDB code: 2SRC/1Y57)















Links

----Online journals that are of interest to the Roux lab
Biochemistry    Biophysical J    J Chem Phys    J Phys ChemB    JACS    PLOS Comp Biol    Annual Reviews
ChemPhysLett    Phys Rev Lett    Science    Nature    NatStructMolBiol    PNAS    J Mol Biol    Structure
Cell    CurrOpinStructBiol

----All about graduate school
Graduate school stipends: the idea from a Harvard trained fashion expert
Advice for graduate students: the wisdom of a senior Yale professor




Last updated: Monday May 14, 2007
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