Donald J Jacobs

Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330-8268

Office: SC1106
Phone: (818) 677-4124
e-mail: donald.jacobs@csun.edu

My current research interests centers on understanding protein flexibility, stability and folding using theoretical and computational tools of statistical physics. The focus of my molecular biophysics group is to accurately characterize protein conformational flexibility. The calculations of the group are based on a mechanical viewpoint using concepts of network rigidity, where detailed micro-mechanical information about a protein is obtained. We study structure-flexibility-function relationships and investigate correspondences between flexibility and stability. Our theoretical predictions are being compared with experimental NMR hydrogen exchange data, calorimetric and hydrogen bond stability measurements. The scientific significance of this research is potentially far reaching, with many applications in protein engineering and drug design. Locating flexible regions may assist in predicting conformational changes induced upon binding of a substrate. Specificity in function may be related to rigid regions that act as templates for molecular binding. Algorithms for docking and simulation of long-time motions may be improved by using quantitative measures that characterize intrinsic conformational flexibility. The flexibility measures may become a useful finger-printing system whereby they could facilitate high throughput bioinformatic studies.