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Research Interest
Structural and functional studies of protein targets related to infectious diseases (host-pathogen interactions) and cancers

Research Focus
Proteins are important biological macromolecules playing vital and integral roles in all living systems. Proteins are implicated as causes of many diseases. X-ray crystallography enables us to determine three-dimensional structures of proteins, and thus to understand their functional roles and contributions to diseases. It is important to study proteins that play key roles in diseases. This can be achieved by structural and structure based functional (mutagenesis and biophysical / biochemical / biological) studies.

My laboratory focuses on a number of host and pathogen proteins that play important roles in infectious diseases. The project encompasses studies of molecular mechanisms of bacterial and viral pathogenesis in the context of disease processes. To this end, we are investigating several targets to understand the biological question on how virulence factors of Gram-negative bacteria initiate the infection process. To address this question we study the type III secretion system (T3SS) and type VI secretion systems (T6SS). Similarly in the viral pathogenesis, we are investigating the mechanism of host interaction and neutralization of hepatitis E virus (HEV). My laboratory is also interested in studying the structural basis for the mechanism of action of a number of cancer related kinases and proteases.

The long-term goal of our group is to illuminate outstanding challenges in the area of infectious diseases through host-pathogen interactions and cancers to provide new avenues for addressing them towards drug design and development

Selected Recent Publications

• Jobichen C, Fernandis AZ, Velazquez-Campoy A, Leung KY, Mok YK, Wenk MR, Sivaraman J. Biochemical Journal (2009) May 13;420 (2):191-9. 

• Sun Q, Collins R, Huang S, Holmberg-Schiavone L, Anand GS, Tan CH, van-den-Berg S, Deng LW, Moore PK, Karlberg T, Sivaraman J.
  Journal of Biological Chemistry (2009) Jan 30; 284 (5):3076-85.

• Sunita S, Tkaczuk KL, Purta E, Kasprzak JM, Douthwaite S, Bujnicki JM, Sivaraman J.
  Journal of Molecular Biology (2008) Nov 14; 383 (3):652-66.

• Zhou X, Tan TC, Valiyaveettil S, Go ML, Kini RM, Velazquez-Campoy A, Sivaraman J.
  Biophysical Journal (2008) Oct; 95 (7):3366-80.

• Zhou X, Sun Q, Kini RM, Sivaraman J.
  Protein Science (2008) Oct;17(10):1798-804.

• Chua T K, Bujnicki JM, Tan TC, Frederick Huynh, BK Patel and Sivaraman J.
  Plant Cell (2008) Apr; 20 (4):1059-72.

• Ng C, Jackson RA, Buschdorf JP, Sun Q, Guy GR, Sivaraman J.
  EMBO Journal (2008) Mar 5;27(5):804-16.

• Sunita S, Purta E, Durawa M, Tkaczuk KL, Swaathi J, Bujnicki JM, Sivaraman J.
  Nucleic Acids Research (2007); 35(13):4264-74

• Jobichen C, Li M, Yerushalmi G, Tan YW, Mok YK, Rosenshine I, Leung KY, Sivaraman J.
  PLoS Pathogens (2007).3(5):e69.

• Sunita S, Zhenxing H, Swaathi J, Cygler M, Matte A, Sivaraman J.  
  Journal of Molecular Biology (2006). 359(4):998-1009.