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Distinguished Professor Ben M Dunn
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
University of Florida
P.O. Box 100245, Gainesville, FL USA 32610-0245
Email: bdunn@ufl.edu
Tel: +1 352-392-3362
Fax: +1 352-846-0412
Homepage: http://myprofile.cos.com/bdunn
| Research |
| My laboratory focuses on the structure and mechanism of proteolytic enzymes, specifically aspartic proteinases as well as serine proteases. We have cloned a number of enzymes from mammalian, fungal, viral, and protozoan sources and are expressing these in bacteria. We deal with protein folding problems in order to optimize the yield of active proteases. We are constructing chimeric enzymes by mixing N- and C-terminal domains from different aspartic proteinases. We have devised new oligopeptide substrates for the detailed analysis of the activity of native and recombinant enzymes. We are using combinatorial libraries to study substrate specificity across the aspartic proteinase family. We are also extending this analysis to some serine proteinases from bacteria and from mammals. We work with both synthetic small molecule inhibitors and protein inhibitors. The latter are produced in recombinant form. We have several collaborations with crystallographers and have published our work on several systems. We are currently establishing crystallography at the University of Florida in order to continue our studies of structure and function. Major targets of our research are HIV protease from several sub-types, malarial proteases, and human aspartic proteinases. |
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| Collaborations |
Alexander Wlodawer
Kohei Oda
Andy Kaplan
Linda Walling
Ralph Bradshaw
Maureen Goodenow
John Dame
Rob McKenna
Mavis Agbandje-McKenna
Steve Hagen |
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| Publications |
B.M. Dunn, "Structure and Mechanism of the Pepsin-Like Family of Aspartic Proteinases", Chemical Reviews, 102, 4431-4458.
B.M. Dunn, "Anatomy and pathology of HIV-1 peptidase" in Essays in Biochemistry Volume 38: Proteases in Biology and Medicine, N.M. Hooper, ed., Portland Press, London, 2002, pp. 113-127.
J. C. Clemente, R. Hemrajani, L. E. Blum, M. M. Goodenow, and B. M. Dunn (2003) “Secondary Mutations M36I and A71V in the Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type I Protease can Provide an Advantage for the Emergence of the Primary Mutation D30N”, Biochemistry, 42, 15029-15035.
T. Green, O. Ganesh, K. Perry, L. Smith, L.H. Phylip, T.M. Logan, S.J. Hagen, B.M. Dunn, and A.S. Edison, (2004) “IA3, an aspartic proteinase inhibitor from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is intrinsically unstructured in solution”, Biochemistry, in press.
C. A. Yowell, B. B. Beyer, S.-H. Hung, J. Westling, M. Lam, B. M. Dunn, and J. B. Dame, (2003) “Recombinant Expression and Enzymatic Subsite Characterization of Plasmepsin 4 from all Four Plasmodium Species Infecting Man”, Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, in press.
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