CAREER: A Structure-Based Approach to Transcription Factor-Binding Site Prediction via Protein-DNA Docking

（该奖项由2009年美国复苏与再投资法案：公法111-5资助）。这是一个CAREER奖，用于支持北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校计算与信息学院郭军涛博士的研究。郭博士是一名二年级终身助理教授。提高我们对蛋白质- dna相互作用机制的认识对生物学的许多方面都有影响，包括系统生物学和进化。基于结构的方法将用于PI？他的实验室研究蛋白质- dna的相互作用，重点是深入了解基因调控网络的控制。该项目正在开发计算方法以及通过模拟蛋白质- dna相互作用来预测转录因子（TF）结合位点所需的数据和基础设施资源。转录因子的三维结构和DNA序列将用于预测蛋白质-DNA复合物模型，然后将得到的结合模型用于预测转录因子的结合位点。本研究的结果将是一个全面的蛋白质- dna复杂结构数据库和测试结果的基准集，蛋白质- dna在两个分辨率水平上的对接算法，基于结构的基因组尺度tf结合位点预测方法和全自动预测服务器。数据库和web服务器将在PI上可用？作为他职业规划的一部分，郭博士将开发免费的公共基础设施。此外，PI正与信息技术多样性研究所（DITI）和北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校的STARS联盟密切合作，鼓励本科生参与生物信息学研究，特别是那些来自代表性不足群体的学生。PI还将在北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校数学、科学和技术教育中心（CMSTE）提供的卓越教学暑期学院（SITE）项目中发挥积极作用，为高中教师提供培训。最后，这些研究活动将被整合到北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校新成立的生物信息学和基因组学系的生物信息学教育工作中。

(This award is funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: Public Law 111-5).This is a CAREER award to support the research of Dr. Juntao Guo in the College of Computing and Informatics at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte. Dr. Guo is a second-year, tenure-track Assistant Professor. Advancing our knowledge of protein-DNA interaction mechanisms has implications for many aspects of biology including systems biology and evolution. Structure-based approaches will be used in the PI?s lab to investigate protein-DNA interactions, with a focus on gaining insight into the control of gene regulatory networks. This project is developing computational methods and the data and infrastructure resources required for genomic scale prediction of transcription factor (TF) binding sites by modeling protein-DNA interactions. A 3-dimensional structure of a transcription factor and a DNA sequence will be used to predict a protein-DNA complex model and the resulting binding model will then be used to predict the binding sites of the transcription factor. Results of this research will be a comprehensive protein-DNA complex structure database and benchmark sets for testing the results, algorithms for protein-DNA docking at two levels of resolution, structure-based methods for genome-scale TF-binding site prediction and a fully automated prediction server. The database and webserver will be available on the PI?s website: http://cciweb.uncc.edu/~jguo4/As a part of his CAREER plan, Dr. Guo will develop free publicly accessible infrastructure. Further, the PI is working closely with the Diversity in Information Technology Institute (DITI) and the STARS Alliance at UNC Charlotte to encourage participation of undergraduate students, especially those from underrepresented groups, in bioinformatics research. The PI will also play an active role in the Summer Institutes for Teaching Excellence (SITE) program offered by the Center for Mathematics, Science, and Technology Education (CMSTE) at UNC Charlotte to educate high school teachers. Finally, these research activities will be integrated into the bioinformatics education efforts in the newly established Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.