The Tang Laboratory, in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Missouri - Columbia, employs various biochemical, biophysical and computational techniques to characterize the structure and dynamics of macromolecules in solution.
Structural biology is an inter-disciplinary field drawn from molecular biology, biochemistry and biophysics, concerning the relationship between three-dimensional shapes of macromolecules and their functions. X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy are the only two experimental techniques that can depict macromolecular structures at atomic resolution, which provides the basis to understand biological phenomena. From a practical perspective, the atomic-resolution structures of enzymes, protein-protein complexes etc. enable rational design of small molecules that can either inhibit or enhance the relevant biological processes.
A dynamic view is emerging in recent years regarding the structures of macromolecules in solution. In order to fulfill its specific function, a macromolecule is able to sample alternative conformations besides the structure of main species, albeit with very low probabilities. Such dynamic fluctuation of conformations may occur at different magnitude (from a single bond vector to an entire molecule) and different time scale (from pico-seconds to seconds). NMR is uniquely suited to provide residue-specific structural and dynamic information of macromolecules in solution. A recently developed paramagnetic NMR technique termed paramagnetic relaxation enhancement or PRE allows for the first time direct visualization of minor species in a dynamic fluctuation even with as low as 1% population.
The research in the Tang Laboratory covers these three general areas. 1) Detection and visualization of minor and alternative species in solution. 2) Development of new methodology to simultaneously characterize structure and dynamics of macromolecules. 3) Identification of novel therapeutic agents for the treatment of emerging diseases.
We welcome qualified and motivated individual to join our scientific endeavor.