Drs. H.J. (Henk-Jan) Joosten: "3DM: From Data to Medicine"

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7 Dec 2007 11:00
Unit: Wageningen University
Location: Aula, building 362, Gen. Foulkesweg 1, Wageningen
Organisation: Wageningen University
Promotor: prof.dr. J.A. Berg (Genomics)
Co Promotor: Dr. P.J. Schaap, Dr. J.M. Vervoort

 Life is powered by the action of proteins. They arrange many different processes inside a living cell. In the last decades proteins have been popular study subjects, which resulted in many useful insights and applications. In the pharmaceutical industry, for instance, proteins are the main target for drug development. Enzymes are proteins that speed up biochemical processes. The ability of enzymes to catalyze many different reactions makes them appropriate for environmental friendly synthesis or breakdown of chemical compounds.
Proteins belong to protein families. A powerful method to gain biological insights in the functioning of a specific protein is to use all data available for corresponding protein family and transfer this data to the protein of interest. The problem, however, is the huge amounts of data that is available for protein families. Systematically collecting and correlating this sheer amount of data is difficult and time consuming. Therefore 3DM was developed. 3DM automatically collects protein family data and stores this in one system making the data applicable for one protein member of interest.
3DM was applied to a protein called oxaloacetate hydrolase (OAH). OAH is a fungal enzyme that is responsible for the secretion of a toxic compound called oxalate. Finding a chemical compound that can inhibit OAH activity could potentially serve as a drug for fungal infections or as a food preserver against plant pathogen fungi.
The  thesis “3DM: From Data to Medicine” comprises all steps between protein family data collection by 3DM and the final synthesis and testing of a compound that can inhibit OAH
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