In our lab, we study how proteins/protein assemblies express their functions based on the information of their 3-dimensional (3D) molecular structures. We combine nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, molecular biological techniques, and bioinformatics methods to determine protein structures in atomic-resolution.
We also develop methods and instruments for solid-state NMR spectroscopy. Instrumentation for dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) that enables orders of magnitude sensitivity improvement deserves most of our time and efforts. Methods for non-uniform data sampling (NUS) and for fast MAS-proton detection techniques would also take an important part of the development.
We mainly focus our attention on signal/ion transducing membrane proteins and functional/pathogenic fibrous protein assemblies. Studying behaviors of these systems in intact cells is also one of the main projects. On-going collaboration with the University Hospital is interested in potential relationships between morphology of pathogenic fibrils and disease phenotypes.
