Dr. Jun Tsao’s main research interest is X-ray crystallographic analysis of various proteins that are implicated in important biological functions in infectious diseases. With thorough understanding of the structure and function relationships of these proteins, design of novel drugs based on the protein structure can be accomplished. Dr. Jun Tsao’s on-going projects are to design and synthesize inhibitors against the bacterial sialidase, and to solve the complex structures of the bacterial sialidase with its inhibitors.
Dr. Jun Tsao’s other research highlight is the structural genomics project that includes high throughput protein expression and refolding, microarray screen for protein crystallization, remote-controlled robotic X-ray data analysis, and user-friendly bioinformatics of structural genomics. We currently are focusing on the genome of C. elegans that has predicted 19,099 genes. All these genes will be expressed in vitro and subject to structural biology studies. Dr. Jun Tsao works on the web interfaced database with the bioinformatics team http://www.cbse.uab.edu/.
