Shiou-Chuan (Sheryl) Tsai
Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, School of Biological Sciences
Chemistry, School of Physical Sciences
Phone: (949) 824-4486
Email: sctsai(at)uci.edu
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4944
http://www.faculty.uci.edu/scripts/UCIFacultyProfiles/detailMBB.cfm?ID=4944
UCI Faculty Profile
MB&B Faculty
Chemistry Faculty
Sheryl Tsai
Dr. Tsai is studying Polyketide Synthase: This complex enzyme produces many medically important aromatic natural products, such as the anti-cancer drugs doxorubicin, bleomycin and mitramycin. Understanding the structures and functions of PKS is the key to rationally engineering PKS to biosynthesize new “unnatural” natural products that may be screened for new anti-cancer activities.
Cancer relevance of this research is: (1) cancer prevention: design of inhibitors to decontaminate one of the deadliest environmental carcinogen, aflatoxin; (2) cancer treatment: protein engineering to biosynthesize anticancer natural product analogs such as polyketides.
Selected Publications:
Lin, T. W., Melgar, M. M., Kurth, D., Swamidass, S. J., Purdon, J., Tseng, T., Gago, G., Baldi, P., Gramajo, H., and Tsai, S. C. (2006). Structure-based inhibitor design of AccD5, an essential acyl-CoA carboxylase carboxyltransferase domain of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 103(9), 3072-7.
Smith, S., and Tsai, S. C. (2007). The type I fatty acid and polyketide synthases: a tale of two megasynthases. Nat Prod Rep 24(5), 1041-72.
Ames , B. D., Korman, T. P., Zhang, W., Smith, P., Vu, T., Tang, Y., and Tsai, S. C. (2008). Crystal structure and functional analysis of tetracenomycin ARO/CYC: implications for cyclization specificity of aromatic polyketides. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105(14), 5349-54.
Korman, T. P., Tan, Y. H., Wong, J., Luo, R., and Tsai, S. C. (2008). Inhibition kinetics and emodin cocrystal structure of a type II polyketide ketoreductase. Biochemistry 47(7), 1837-47. |
