- Department
- Email Address
- [email protected]
- Research Areas
- Research Keywords
- Research Summary
The Harkness group studies the dynamics of biological molecules toward better understanding how these influence human health and disease. Broadly, our areas of interest include:
(1) How biological macromolecules self-assemble, for example oligomeric protein “machines” that perform reactions as required by the cell, or non-canonical nucleic acid structures such as G-quadruplexes that regulate gene expression.
(2) The mechanisms of biomolecular recognition, e.g. allostery in modulation of the interactions between proteins and ligands.
(3) The relationship between structural dynamics and biological activity.- Techniques Used
Biomolecule production and purification (for example, proteins and DNA or RNA), ligand binding and activity assays using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and fluorescence, conformational dynamics measurements via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and computer modeling of biophysical and other kinds of data with programming languages such as Python.
- Locations of international collaborators
National Institutes of Health (USA).
- Links
