Center for Bioinformatics at KU

As part of our public Seminar Series
http://bioinformatics.ku.edu/seminars

October 14, Tue 2008
1:00 pm, MRB 200 Conference Room

Dr. Roberto De Guzman

Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas

NMR studies of bacterial and viral pathogenesis

Many Gram-negative bacteria require the so-called type III secretion apparatus to deliver protein toxins and infect their hosts. This apparatus is a protein assembly that resembles a syringe and a needle on the bacterial surface, essentially functioning as bacterial nanoinjectors. We use protein NMR methods to study the structures and protein-protein interactions of individual components of bacterial nanoinjectors. On the other hand, we also apply NMR methods to study proteins that are involved in the pathogenesis of hantaviruses, a group of emerging infectious viruses that can cause a hemorrhagic fever in humans.