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From Deeds Lab
- The Deeds lab is currently actively recruiting graduate students and postdocs. See our positions page for more information!
Understanding the Assembly of Macromolecular Structures
Most biological processes rely, in some form or another, on the action of large protein or protein-nucleic acid complexes. Protein synthesis, for example, is catalyzed by the ribosome, a massive molecular machine consisting of 3-4 large RNA molecules and 50-80 proteins, depending on the organism in question. Transcription, splicing, protein degradation and signaling all involve the action of similarly large complexes.
Cells do not synthesize these machines as fully formed entities, but rather as a set of components (e.g. individual proteins and nucleic acids) that must assemble into a higher-order structure in order to perform their functions. At its core, this assembly process is mediated by a set of intermolecular (binding) interactions. In our lab we use mathematical and computational modeling to examine how a set of interacting components assembles into a fully-formed macromolecular structure. We are actively considering the following areas:
- Optimizing the assembly of ring-like structures
- Understanding assembly in the context of large Protein-Protein Interaction networks
- Developing methods to allow for the design of structures that will self-assemble efficiently
Our lab also has interests in modeling the dynamics of signaling networks and in analyzing and developing models of allometric scaling. Please see our research page for more information!
