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Julie Mitchell
Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Mathematics
Ph.D., Mathematics, University of California-Berkeley
B.A., Mathematics, San Jose State University
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Predictive models of molecular interactions and protein design
Molecular interactions provide the essential language of biochemistry.
Gene regulation, signaling and other physiological communication
processes are controlled by networks of such interactions. It is
natural to examine interactions in terms of the individual behaviors,
which are largely dictated by structural features and random
fluctuation. Because kinetic rates can be altered by environmental
conditions such as temperature, and the basis for this is largely
structural, the system-wide behavior is intimately tied to structural
detail. Our goal is to use predictive models to explore structural
characterizations of protein association. The use of computational
tools based on physics and experimental data helps us uncover mechanisms
of protein association, predict the effects of mutations, and explore protein design.
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