Graduate Students:

Rotation Project 1: Screening of small molecule compounds targeting de-ubiquitinating enzyme USP7. This project directly translates into the development of new treatments for Hao-Fountain syndrome. A rotation student will gain experience in bacterial expression of recombinant human proteins, and many aspects of protein purification, including multiple chromatography techniques, and will be introduced to major structural biology methods such as biomolecular NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.

Rotation Project 2: The role of conformational dynamics in USP7 function. USP7 is a dynamic enzyme that can adopt active and inactive conformations in solution. Although the structure of the enzyme is known it provides only a static snapshot of the enzyme in action.  This project aims to characterize the conformational dynamics of the enzyme in solution.  A rotating student will learn advanced protein biochemistry and biomolecular NMR.

Rotation Project 3: Analysis of mutations of patients with USP7-related diseases. This project will test the effect of Hao-Fountain syndrome patient-derived mutations of USP7 on the structure and function of the enzyme. During rotation, a student will gain extensive experience in molecular biology, protein biochemistry, enzymology, and molecular modeling.

Rotation Project 4: Promyelocytic Leukemia and enzymatic function of PML protein. This project will focus on uncovering the enzymatic function of a PML protein implicated in Promyelocytic Leukemia, a type of human cancer. It is a part of a larger NIH-funded project in the lab aimed at understanding the molecular mechanism of PML action and the discovery of new treatments for Promyelocytic Leukemia. A student is expected to learn advanced protein biochemistry techniques, develop enzymatic assays, and become familiar with NMR spectroscopy, and molecular modeling.

Please contact Irina Bezsonova directly at bezsonova@uchc.edu.