Author: tanggis

Congrats to Eric Chen, Grand Prize winner of 2013 Google Science Fair

Seventeen-year-old Eric Chen won the 17-18 age category AND the Grand Prize in this year’s Google Science Fair, with his project, Computer-aided Discovery of Novel Influenza Endonuclease Inhibitors to Combat Flu Pandemic. Among a huge amount of computational studies and biological assays, he used FTMap program developed by Vajda and Kozakov groups.

BMERC Seminar on peptide binding sites detection

When: Friday, July 26, 3 pm Where: ENG room 203, 44 Cummington Street Title: Detection of peptide binding sites on protein surfaces Speaker: Ora Schueler-Furman The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

FTMap software enables high school student research in drug discovery against flu, and gets him to Google Science Fair finals

Google Science Fair is an online science competition for 13-18 year old students around the globe sponsored by Google, Lego, CERN, National Geographic and Scientific American. This year one of the fifteen finalists selected across the world was Eric Chen (USA) with the project “Computer-aided Discovery of Novel Influenza Endonuclease Inhibitors to Combat Flu Pandemic”. […]

Development of Mathematical and Computational Methods for Improved Protein-Protein Docking

Vajda, Kozakov, Paschalidis, and Vakili groups Supported by: NIH R01 GM061867 “A multistage approach to protein-protein docking” (PI: Vajda) NIH R01 GM093147 “Refinement Methods for Protein Docking based on Exploring Multi-Dimensional Energy Funnels” (PI: Paschalidis and Kozakov) NSF DBI 1147082 “ABI Development: Refinement Algorithms and Server for Protein Docking” (PI: Vajda and Kozakov) Protein-protein interactions […]

Computational selection of small molecule inhibitors of the eIF4E:eIF4G protein-protein complex involved in cancer

Vajda and Beglov groups Supported by: American Cancer Society institutional pilot grant IRG 72 001-36-IRG (PI: D. Beglov) The objective of this project is to identify novel inhibitors of the translation initiation factor eIF4E by extensive, fast and reliable screening of large virtual libraries of chemical compounds. EIF4E is a well validated drug target which is misused by cancer […]

GPU Accelerated Protein Docking Software with Flexible Refinement

Herbordt, Vajda, and Kozakov groups, Acpharis Inc (Faculty startup by Vajda) Supported by: NIH R41GM101907-01 “GPU Accelerated Protein Docking Software with Flexible Refinement” (PI: Herbordt) Based on the results of CAPRI (Critical Assessment of Predicted Interactions), a worldwide protein docking competition, PIPER, developed in the Vajda lab, is among the best protein-protein docking programs currently […]

Analysis of ligand binding to DNA and RNA molecules

Vajda, Kozakov, and Frank-Kamenetskii groups Small molecules that bind to DNA are extremely useful as biochemical tools for the visualization of DNA both in vitro and inside the cell. Additionally, the clinical significance of DNA-binding compounds can hardly be overstated, as many anticancer regimens include a compound that binds to and/or modifies DNA. Similarly, RNA […]

Targeting protein translation initiation for cancer therapy

Vajda, Porco, Kozakov, and Beglov groups, in collaboration with Jerry Pelletier (McGill University, Montreal) Supported by: NIH R01 GM064700 “Computational Mapping of Proteins for the Binding of Ligands” (PI: Vajda) Protein synthesis presents an emerging class of cancer drug targets. The translation process occurs in three phases: initiation, elongation, and termination, with initiation being the […]

The molecular origin of receptor-based developmental and reproductive toxicity

Vajda and Beglov groups, in collaboration with the Boston University Superfund Research Project Supported by: NIEHS P42ES007381 Receptor-Based Developmental And Reproductive Toxicity Of Superfund Chemicals (PI: D. Ozonoff) The Biomolecular Engineering Research Center is part of the Bioinformatics and Molecular Modeling Research Support Core, which offers computational tools, expertise, and services to a number of […]

BMERC Seminar on Computational Protein Design

When: Wednesday, June 19, 11 am Where: ENG room 203, 44 Cummington Street Title:    Conceptual framework for performing simultaneous fold and sequence optimization of reduced  representation protein models Speaker: Istvan Kolossvary D.E. Shaw Research, New York City, NY Biographical Notes: István Kolossváry graduated with a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. in chemical engineering from the Budapest University of […]