Dr. Yinan Wei

Biological Chemistry

Research interest

1.  Fighting the war against multi-drug resistant bacteria through the study of the bacteria multi-drug resistance transporter protein

The emergence of multi-drug resistant bacteria, immune to all known antibiotics, is a severe threat to human health. These super bugs gain multi-drug resistance (MDR) mainly through up-regulating the expression of multi-drug efflux pumps. These pumps are membrane transporter proteins that recognize a broad spectrum of structurally different compounds and actively pump these compounds out of the cell. Blocking the function of these transporters using specific inhibitors has the potential to restore the effects of antibiotics that are otherwise weakened or even eliminated by efflux pumping. To design such inhibitors, a thorough understanding of the mechanism of substrate binding by these proteins is essential. Our group studies the structural and functions of the MDR pumps using a multi-technique approach, including dynamic and static fluorescence measurement, fluorescent resonance energy transfer, isothermal titration calorimetry, electron microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and X-ray crystallography, coupled with site directed mutagenesis. These studies will help elucidate the mechanism of multi-substrate recognition by MDR pumps, which will set stage for structure-based rational drug design targeting MDR pumps.

2. Viral capsid-based particles as cancer targeting drug delivery vesicles and nanoscale bioinorganic building blocks

 

The quest for new nano-sized chemical architecture has promoted an interest in utilizing existing biogenic assemblies of the proper dimension, such as viruses. Viruses consist of two components, a nucleic acid genome, where the hereditary information is stored, surrounded by a protective shell of protein called the capsid. Virus capsids have emerged as versatile tools in multiple aspect of nano-technology applications, serving as scaffolds or building blocks for novel materials, nano-sized reactors, well-controlled chemical reactions, or as containers for specific labels in diagnostic imaging. We are interested in using viral protein capsid as a model to develop viral capsid-based tools.  This technology has potential application in targeted drug delivery, histological tumor-typing assays, and in making nanoscale building blocks with an integrated inorganic coat or core for the construction of novel biomaterials