The University of Illinois at Chicago is awarded a grant to develop novel computational methods for identifying surfaces on protein structures that are likely to be functionally important, for identification of key residues, and for predicting multi-functional enzymes. The PI''s will develop models and methods for constructing substitution rate matrices of local binding surfaces and will build a resource database of annotated protein functional surfaces of enzymes. The key technical products will be: novel methods for identifying functionally important binding surfaces on enzymes, for identifying candidate key residues, and for recognizing multifunctional enzymes with dual or more functional surface; a method for estimating evolutionary pattern of enzyme local surfaces; analysis of enzyme activities from structures; and a database of functional surfaces of enzyme structures.
The computational tools proposed in this project will enable fast computational characterization of protein enzymes. The database as an outcome of proposed research will provide resources for biological researchers to identify functional surface, to locate key residues, and to assess possible multiple functional roles. They will also fill an important gap in current knowledge of enzymes by helping researchers to recognize potential alternative binding.
