Our projects are funded by NIH grants. One project is a GM (General Medicine) sponsored Program Project (see Program's web site), to investigate
how, and in what ways, atomic motion in proteins contributes to the
functioning of enzymes. The overall objective of current research is the development of rational design principles based on dynamics for both 'allosteric' effectors and inhibitors for naturally occurring enzymes and rationally designed synthetic enzymes. This project is a collaborative venture involving the
laboratories of Vern Schramm (The Schramm Lab) and Bob Callender at Albert Einstein, Brian Dyer (The Dyer Lab) at Emory University, and Steve Schwartz (The Schwartz Lab) at the University of Arizona.
The studies investigating how the dynamical nature of proteins contribute to the enormous catalytic power of enzymes employ advanced laser methods to initiate the catalyzed chemistry in as fast as 10 ps, while the structure of the evolving system is mapped out with fluorescence and isotope edited vibrational spectrosocpies. Atomic motion, and its relationship to the on-going catalyzed chemistry, is characterized over a very large time span, from 10 ps to minutes, and with structural specificity. The techniques being brought to bear on this subject are state-of-the-art, and some of our work is devoted to their development. A summary of our approaches can be found in Chem. Revs 106, 3031 (2006).
The group working on our projects is quite inter-disciplinary,
and individuals with a background in physical chemistry, biophysics,
biophysical chemistry, computational approaches, fast kinetics studies, and/or
laser spectroscopy might be interested in our studies. Persons with a
background of studying enzyme kinetics using more conventional approaches would
find that background valuable. From time
to time, we expect postdoctoral positions to be available. Please inquire to the email address
below if you are interested. At the moment, we do not have an open position, but we are hopeful for new funding. Candidates will be expected to have a Ph.D. in Biochemistry or Biophysics or a related field. Typically, people in the lab come from two types of backgrounds: (1) enzyme mechanism/protein function using any spectroscopic technique with experience in performing measurements of protein dynamics on fast time scales or (2) a strong background in computational chemistry focused on biological problems such as enzyme catalysis and protein folding are encouraged to apply. Experience with both molecular dynamics software and coding. Salary depends on qualifications, and
reappointment for several years is typically possible.
Inquiries can be addressed to call@aecom.yu.edu.
Applications and letters of reference should be sent to the same address. Albert Einstein College of Medicine is an Equal Opportunity Employer.