First Name
Colin
Middle Name
Last Name
Smith
Organization
Wesleyan University
Job Title
Assistant Professor
Email
colin.smith@wesleyan.edu
Research Summary
Dynamics of computationally designed and naturally occurring proteins
Research Description
The Smith Lab aims to determine the atomic-level mechanisms of how changes in the so-called “second shell” and beyond propagate through the protein and ultimately affect function. This can enable protein activity to be regulated by distant events through a process called allostery. Furthermore, deleterious mutations far removed from the active site make the protein malfunction and cause disease. In other cases, protein engineering has discovered unusually located mutations that enhance activity, making synthetic and therapeutic applications possible. The common mechanistic question about these examples is the following: how do atomic rearrangements propagate from one part of the structure to another? Even more intriguingly, how can a signal propagate without distinct structural changes? There are an increasing number of cases where this communication happens not through a change in the structure of the protein, but in the amount of motion.
Research Keywords
allostery
Working with Rosetta Since
2006