My lab's research interest is in the broad area of structural bioinformatics with a major focus on protein-DNA interactions. Protein-DNA interactions play a crucial role in the regulation of gene expression. Knowledge of protein-DNA interactions at the structural-level can provide insights into the mechanisms of gene regulation and can guide the design of novel therapeutic molecules. We aim to address several important questions regarding specific protein-DNA interaction: 1) what are the structural features for specific protein-DNA interaction? 2) can we model specific protein-DNA interactions based on knowledge learned from existing protein-DNA complex models? 3) can we accurately predict transcription factor (TF) binding sites with protein-DNA interaction models (also called structure-based approach)?Research Funding
1. UNC Charlotte Startup fund, 8/2007-6/2010
2. CMC-UNC Charlotte Collaborative Grants Program
"An Integrative Approach to Study the Transcriptional Regulation of ALAS1 by Heme", Co-PI, 5/2009-5/2010
3. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI)
NSF CAREER Award: "CAREER: A Structure-Based Approach to Transcription Factor-binding Site Prediction via Protein-DNA Docking", PI, 7/2009-9/2015
4. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Biological Infrastructure (DBI)
"Collaborative Research: ABI Innovation: Towards high performance flexible transcription factor-DNA docking", PI, 8/2014-7/2019
5. National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Graduate Education (DGE)
"EDU: Collaborative: enhancing education in genetic privacy with integration of research in computer science and bioinformatics”, Co-PI (PI-Mindy Shi), 9/2015-8/2019
6. National Institutes of Health (NIH)
"Structural Features of Specificity in Protein-DNA Recognition", PI, 9/2015-5/2020