1) Chemical genomics for cancer and obesity drug design. Structure Biology plays a critical role in bridging biology and chemistry together to study biological pathways at atomic level. We use macromolecular X-ray crystallography as a tool combined with combinatorial chemical libraries to systematically study protein-protein, protein-ligand interactions of selected gene family proteins and their associated signaling pathways. We specifically interested in transforming growth factor-β(TGFβ) and obesity gene (OB) protein leptin signal transduction pathways. The program will also explore the method development of unnatural amino acids incorporation for protein crystallization and phase determination.

2) Structure-based therapeutic protein optimization. We use protein crystallography and other biophysical methods to design new Insulin, GLP-1, PTH, and other therapeutic protein/peptide analogs to study their folding, receptor binding and ultimately to improve their therapeutic index.