Projects

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) is a promising candidate for the treatment of neurodegenerative or metabolic diseases, but suffers rapid clearance in body. Here in this project, we constructed a new long-acting recombinant human CNTF (rhCNTF) by genetic fusion with an albumin-binding domain (ABD) through a flexible peptide linker, hoping to endow the new molecule prolonged serum circulation time by binding with endogenous human serum albumin (HSA) and then utilizing the naturally long-half-life property of HSA.

In this project, we described a new thiol-specific PEGylation strategy based on catechol-derived reactive quinone species. Catechol-derived polyethylene glycol (PEG) was synthesized by coupling linear PEG N-hydroxysuccinimide to dopamine and then oxidized to quinone. PEG-dopaquinone (PEG-DAQ) mostly modifying the free cysteines of two model proteins of truncated flagellin (CBLB502) and recombined human ciliary neurotrophic factor (rhCNTF) evidenced its thiol-specificity.

We develop a method to fast sequence a single DNA molecule, which can be further used for virus detection.

We used a machanical model to quantify how protein affects DNA melting within replisome under tension.

Transitionally exposed ssDNA during replication are coated and stabilized by single-stranded DNA binding protein (SSB) within the replisome. How these SSB protein regulates and are displaced by DNA polymerase (DNAp) however are still poorly understood. Here T7 DNAp and T7 gp2.5 (SSB) are used as model proteins to investigate their interaction.