This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This is a CAREER award to support the research of Dr. Dmitry Korkin, in the Computer Science Department and Informatics Institute, at University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Korkin is a second-year, tenure-track Assistant Professor. Infections are complex biological processes that are common among a variety of microbial pathogens, targeting host organisms from virtually all kingdoms of life. The pathogen's strategy of entering the host organism and breaching its immune defenses often involves interactions between the host and pathogen proteins. In many cases, the pathogen can alter the host's cellular functions for the microbe's benefit by mimicking either an entire structure of a host protein or its important functional part. This PI is developing computational methodologies for accurate detection of pathogen protein mimicry. These methods are improving our ability to predict virulent pathogen mimicry when pathogen and host proteins are structurally similar. In addition, this research is developing new methods to predict mimicry when the structures of virulent and host proteins are not related but the functional elements are. A comprehensive web-based database of host pathogens mimicry interactions is being produced from this research. This research will help biologists elucidate the key mechanisms behind this mimicry phenomenon and will provide crucial information for combating infections in plants, animals and humans. Databases and tools produced under this project will be accessible via the PI's web site at http://korkinlab.org.
As part of his CAREER plan, Dr. Korkin is computationally developing accurate predictions and characterizations of host-pathogen interactions. The PI is integrating this research with education by attracting a new generation of scientists into the study of biology using computers (i.e. computational biology), broadening the presence of women and groups traditionally underrepresented in science, and designing unique courses that are providing interdisciplinary training in computational biology.
