Early genomic sequencing efforts promised to revolutionize biology and medicine. Subsequently, sequencing efforts have provided the "blueprints" of over 400 living organisms. However, this information overload is creating nearly as many problems as it provides answers. New and more sensitive computational methods are needed to properly analyze the generated data. Much of our work is focused in these areas, specifically development of new protein functional site prediction algorithms and improved multiple sequence alignment strategies.

» Development and testing of protein functional site prediction: with Don Jacobs and Anthony Fodor (both at University of North Carolina at Charlotte)

» Predicting protein functional sites with phylogenetic motifs

» Development of new multiple sequence alignment algorithms: with Usman Roshan (New Jersey Institute of Technology)

A second aspect of our work uses biophysical techniques to investigate protein stability, structure and function. Our past efforts mostly focused on protein electrostatics. Currently, we are attempting to elucidate stability/flexibility relataionships. As such, we are developing a powerful Distance Constraint Model that harmoniously combines mechanical and thermodynamic descriptions of protein structure. Consequently, Quantitative Stability/Flexibility Relationships can be computed in order to reveal functional mechanisms.

» Unifying mechanical and thermodynamic viewpoints of macromolecular structure: with Don Jacobs (University of North Carolina at Charlotte)

» Molecular dynamics simulation: with Don Jacobs (University of North Carolina at Charlotte)

» Understanding the importance of conserved electrostatic properties in protein structure and function

Dennis R. Livesay
Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science and
Bioinformatics Research Center
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223
phone: 704.287.7995;
fax: 704.687.6610
email: drlivesa at uncc dot edu

» Our new protein functional site benchmark is available here.

» New group photos: Biomolecular Physics Group and Bioinformatics Research Center.

» BMC Bioinformatics advertisement features one of our images: Read about it in the updates section.