Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Biography

2010-present

Associate Professor, University of Notre Dame

2010-present

Concurrent Associate Professor, Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame

2003-2010

Assistant Professor, University of Notre Dame

1994-2003

Senior Investigator, Structural Biology and Biophysics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals

1993-1994

Postdoctoral Fellow, ETH-Zürich, Switzerland

1993

Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics, University of Michigan

1987

B.S. in Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University

Selected Awards

2011

Edmund P. Joyce Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching

1993-1994

Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Cancer Research Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship

1989-1991

Molecular Biophysics Predoctoral Training Fellowship

Research Interests

Biophysics, NMR Spectroscopy, Protein and Ligand Dynamics

The Peng Lab works at the interface of the physical and biological sciences to illuminate the role of bio-molecular dynamics in molecular recognition and evolution.

Our main experimental tool is multi-dimensional NMR. We focus on both methods development, and applications to several proteins of therapeutic interest. Our long term interests include: (i) getting a fundamental understanding of signal transduction and protein evolution that includes conformational ensembles and dynamics. This has relevance for understanding protein-protein interaction networks and drug resistance; (ii) new methods for including flexibility information in iterative drug design. We complement our NMR studies with molecular dynamics calculations, protein biochemistry, and collaborations with groups focused on medicinal chemistry.

Recent Publications

• VanPelt, J.; Stoffel, S.; Staude, M. W.; Dempster, K.; Rose, H. A.; Graney, S.; Graney, E.; Braynard, S.; Kovrigina, E.; Leonard, D. A. and Peng, J. W. "Arginine Modulates Carbapenem Deactivation by OXA-24/40 in Acinetobacter Baumannii" 2021 Journal of Molecular Biology, 433 (19), 167150. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2021.167150.
• Zhang, M. L.; Frederick, T. E.; VanPelt, J.; Case, D. A. and Peng, J. "Coupled Intra- and Interdomain Dynamics Support Domain Cross-Talk in Pin1" 2020 Journal of Biological Chemistry, 295 (49), pp.16585-16603. DOI: 10.1074/jbc.RA120.015849.
• Stoffel, S.; Zhang, Q. W.; Li, D. H.; Smith, B. D. and Peng, J. W. "NMR Relaxation Dispersion Reveals Macrocycle Breathing Dynamics in a Cyclodextrin-Based Rotaxane" 2020 Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142 (16), pp.7413-7424. DOI: 10.1021/jacs.9b12524.
• Born, A.; Nichols, P. J.; Henen, M. A.; Chi, C. N.; Strotz, D.; Bayer, P.; Tate, S. I.; Peng, J. W. and Vogeli, B. "Backbone and Side-Chain Chemical Shift Assignments of Full-Length, Apo, Human Pin1, a Phosphoprotein Regulator with Interdomain Allostery" 2019 Biomolecular NMR Assignments, 13 (1), pp.85-89. DOI: 10.1007/s12104-018-9857-9.
• Zhang, M. L.; Case, D. A. and Peng, J. W. "Propagated Perturbations from a Peripheral Mutation show Interactions Supporting WW Domain Thermostability" 2018 Structure, 26 (11), pp.1474. DOI: 10.1016/j.str.2018.07.014.
• Bouchard, J. J.; Xia, J. C.; Case, D. A. and Peng, J. W. "Enhanced Sampling of Interdomain Motion using Map-Restrained Langevin Dynamics and NMR: Application to Pin1" 2018 Journal of Molecular Biology, 430 (14), pp.2164-2180. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2018.05.007.

Gallery

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