Ceren Tüzmen
Masters Student,
Computational Science and Engineering
The main goal of my
research is to understand the geometry of interactions between proteins by identifying
spatial motifs that are
involved in those protein-protein interactions. The term motif is mostly used
in structural
biology, referring both to
the amino acid sequence and the secondary structure of the protein. Zinc-finger
is a
well-known motif that can be
an example for the former. However, sometimes identifying motifs from sequence
is not
straightforward. The starting
point of my research project is by selecting surface residues and grouping all
triads in contact.
We then search for
the necessary and sufficient conditions for triads to be classified as
recurrent motifs
based on structural and
catalytic similarities between amino acids of the members.