A question about projects 8089-8090 and the like

Moderators: Site Moderators, FAHC Science Team

Post Reply
Jonazz
Posts: 357
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:08 pm

A question about projects 8089-8090 and the like

Post by Jonazz »

I was reading some of the project descriptions and this caught my attention:
The Src family protein tyrosine kinases are enzymes that play key roles in transducing cellular signals regulating cell growth, differentiation, proliferation, migration and survival. These enzymes are responsible for diseases such as cancer in which the cells undergo uncontrolled growth and proliferation. Crystallographic x-ray structures of human c-Src in the inactive and active conformation allow clear structural distinctions to be drawn between the inactive and active states. Those x-ray structures, though rich in information about the two end-points of the activation event, do not show how the activation occurs and how it might be regulated. Simulations and computational models, at different levels of approximation, can complement some of the missing information about Src and help address these important questions. Characterizing conformational transitions in large biomolecules such as Src is challenging, however, because the slow processes are not easily observed during simple unbiased molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. To circumvent those difficulties, previous studies of Src by our collaborators have used biased sampling techniques such as string method to get the series of structures which show the structural changes involved in the activation process. In this project, we perform simulations of src kinase from the structures obtained using the string method to get a more detailed picture of the activation process.
Are these projects related to Gleevec and Tasigna, two medications by Novartis? The battle against chronic myeloid leukemia has been revolutionized by Gleevec (and improved by Tasigna). Can these projects help develop even better anti-cancer medicine?

Thanks for answering! :D
VijayPande
Pande Group Member
Posts: 2058
Joined: Fri Nov 30, 2007 6:25 am
Location: Stanford

Re: A question about projects 8089-8090 and the like

Post by VijayPande »

We are interested in better cancer therapeutics and this work is directly involved in our work in that area.
Prof. Vijay Pande, PhD
Departments of Chemistry, Structural Biology, and Computer Science
Chair, Biophysics
Director, Folding@home Distributed Computing Project
Stanford University
Brazos
Posts: 27
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:02 pm

Re: A question about projects 8089-8090 and the like

Post by Brazos »

Always nice to hear good news. Thanks for posting.
Jonazz
Posts: 357
Joined: Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:08 pm

Re: A question about projects 8089-8090 and the like

Post by Jonazz »

Gratitudes for your response!

But you did not answer one of my questions: Are the projects related to the drugs Gleevec/Tasigna and/or others?

Thanks for answering!
Post Reply