Dr. Herbert Treutlein
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
Australia

Monday, June 8, 1998
3:00 pm (CT)
3269 Beckman Institute

Abstract

The binding of growth factors to receptor monomers on the cell surface induces receptor oligomerization which is an essential step in signal transduction and intercellular communication. The detailed mechanism of complex formation, however, is often only poorly understood. My talk will focus on our work on helical cytokine receptor complexes and will illustrate how molecular modelling can help to deduce structures of protein complexes. Our main techniques are homology modelling and protein-protein docking methods. Despite a low sequence identity with known structures of around 20-25% our homology based models agree well with recently solved experimental structures of receptor subdomains. Interaction sites between monomers are predicted based on experimental data as well as the analysis of hydrophobic surface patches, electrostatic potentials and surface shapes.

Tea and coffee will be served in R3151 Beckman Institute at 2:15pm.