Dan Reshef, PhD student

The factors governing affinity and specificity in the cohesin-dockerin interaction.

Project description

The cellulosome is a multi-protein complex used by bacteria for the degradation of cellulose. The content of the complex is dictated by multiple interaction between cohesin and dockerin domains. These are of high affinity and remarkable specificity: cross-species cohesin and dockerins do usually not bind, indicating the evolutionary pressure on the interaction. I am interested in the structural factors that enable the high affinity and restrict the specificity of the interaction. My goal is to use this knowledge to design a switch, i.e. to create a new exclusive dockerin-cohesin pair. We use Rosetta for modeling of the structure and binding energy of protein complexes. In addition, we investigate simplified schemes for protein structure representation, for example as networks of interactions between residues.

Education
  • 2007-Present Ph.D., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Institute for Medical Research, Department of Molecular Genetics and Biotechnology. Field of Study: The factors governing affinity and specificity in the cohesin-dockerin interaction. Advisor: Dr. Ora Schueler-Furman.
  • 2003-2006 M.Sc., Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Life Sciences. Thesis: Identifying Functional Sites in Enzyme Structures using Energy Functions. Advisor: Dr. Chen Keasar. With honors.
  • 1997, 2001-2003 B.Sc., Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Department of Life Sciences.
Publications
  • Bakhrat A., Baranes K., Kaplun, L., Reshef, D., Krichevsky, O. and Raveh, D. Nuclear export of HO endonuclease of yeast (2007). Genetics. (submitted)
  • Kalisman N., Levi A., Maximova T., Reshef D., Zafriri-Lynn S., Gleyzer Y. and Keasar C. MESHI: a new library of Java classes for molecular modeling. (2005). Bioinformatics 21:3931-2.
Presentations at Meetings
  • Reshef, D., Slutski, M. Barak, Y., Bayer, EA. and Schueler-Furman, O. Factors Governing the affinity and specificity in the cohesin-dockerin complex. (2008). Ilanit/FISEB, Eilat, Israel. Poster.
  • Yahalom, R., Reshef, D., Kalisman, N., Gleyzer, Y., Lerner, B. and Keasar, C. Identification of catalytic residues based on destabilizing properties and an SVM classifier. (2007). ISMB, Eilat, Israel. Poster.
  • Reshef D., Kalisman N., Glyezer Y. and Keasar C. (2006). Prediction of functional sites in enzyme structures using energy functions. RECOMB, Venice, Italy. Poster
  • Reshef D., Kalisman N., Glyezer Y. and Keasar C. (2005). Prediction of functional sites in protein structures using energy functions. IBS, Beer-Sheva, Israel. Poster
Contact
  • Mail: dan.reshef at mail.huji.ac.il
  • Phone (Ein-Karem): 02-6757063