Professor Saraswathi Vishveshwara
Molecular Biophysics
Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore, India

Monday, May 9, 2022
3:00 pm (CT)
Hybrid webinar recording

Abstract

While the backbone topologies of protein structures are well understood, a general overarching framework built from the crucial side-chain interactions between the constituent amino acids is not as well-developed. I will present a multidisciplinary approach for characterizing side-chain based protein structure networks. Using a historical context, I will describe the manner in which it synthesizes concepts from quantum physics and chemistry, the biology of polymer conformations, matrix mathematics, and percolation theory. I then discuss a method for constructing the protein structure network and mining the wealth of static, dynamic and evolutionary information contained in the graph spectra of key proteins involved in human health and disease. The concepts of allostery, paths of communication, crucial nodes for the integrity of protein structures will be illustrated by specific protein examples, such as GPCRs, HIV Protease and SARS-CoV-2 spike protein.