Donald Harry Dean
Professor
Ph.D., Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Michigan, 1972
| Research Division : |
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics |
Contact : |
Retired 6/2012. 776 Biological Sciences Building |
More info : |
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Alumni : |
Manoj Nair , Miao Xiao , Oscar Alzate |
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Protein engineering and biophysical analysis of insecticidal toxins is the major research interest in my laboratory. The ultimate goal of these studies is to understand the structure/function relationships of these proteins to create more specific and environmentally safer pesticides.
One project involves locating the functional domains of insecticidal crystal proteins (ICPs) of Bacillus thuringiensis. Site-directed mutagenesis and homology switches of portions of genes which display different insecticidal activity have created a set of mutants which allows us to identify the specificity domains on two ICPs. Intensive site-directed mutagenesis will reveal which amino acids are involved in the insecticidal activity.