Structural Enzymology

Hwai-Chen Guo

The Guo laboratory is involved in structural and functional studies of several enzymes.  These include a glycosylasparaginase critical for glycoprotein degradation, restriction enzymes that recognize and cleave DNA at specific sequences, the HBV reverse transcriptase essential for the viral replication, as well as peptidases involved in protein and peptide processing. We are investigating the structural basis for the substrate specificities and catalytic mechanisms of these enzymes, by designing experiments that will use specific catalytic assays, kinetic analyses, mechanistic studies, mutational analyses, and X-ray crystallography.

Ribbon drawing of the glycosylasparaginase dimer, with two monomers in cyan and magenta. Some conserved residues at the dimer interface, targeted for mutagenesis studies, are highlighted.