Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics
Kylie J. Walters
PhD, Harvard University, Biophysics
Associate Professor, BMBB
Telephone: (612) 625-2688 Fax: (612) 625-2163
American Cancer Society Research Scholar (2007 - 2011), American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow (2001)
Office: 5-128 NHH
Laboratory: 5-262 NHH
Telephone: (612) 625-8764
Research Description
Our research focuses on how proteins are degraded within cells. The major mechanism for regulated protein degradation in eukaryotes culminates in proteolysis by proteasome. This pathway is required for cell cycle progression, DNA repair, signal transduction, immune response, and protein quality control and it is often hijacked by viruses and compromised in cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Proteasome has thus become an established pharmaceutical target and its inhibition by Bortezomib is used to treat multiple myeloma. We use a variety of biophysical and cellular techniques to study how misfolded proteins are recognized by cellular surveillance systems and removed by proteasome. We have found this pathway to be very well suited for NMR spectroscopy, which is a powerful way to study protein-protein interactions and protein dynamics.
Recent Publications
Chen, X., Lee, B. H., Finley, D., Walters, K. J.: “Structure of Proteasome Ubiquitin Receptor Rpn13 and its Activation by the Scaffolding Protein hRpn2” Mol. Cell 38, 404-415 (2010)
Dikic, I., Wakatsuki, S. Walters, K. J.: “Ubiquitin binding domains-from structures to functions” Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology 10, 659-671 (2009).
Chen, X., Solomon, W. C., Kang, Y., Cerda-Maira, F., Darwin, K. H., Walters, K. J.: “Prokaryotic ubiquitin-like protein Pup is intrinsically disordered” J. of Mol. Biol. 392, 208-217 (2009).
Zhang, N., Walters, K. J.*: “Insights into how protein dynamics affects arylamine N-acetyltransferase catalysis” Biochem and Biophys Res Comm 385, 395-401 (2009).
Zhang, N., Wang, Q., Ehlinger, A., Randles, L., Lary, J. W., Kang, Y., Haririnia, A., Cole, J. L., Fushman, D., Walters, K. J.: “Structure of the S5a:K48 linked diubiquitin complex and its interactions with Rpn13” Molecular Cell 35, 280-290 (2009).
Husnjak, K., Elsasser, S., Zhang, N., Chen, X., Randles, L., Hofmann, K., Walters, K. J.*, Finley, D.*, Dikic, I.*: “Proteasome subunit Rpn13 is a novel ubiquitin receptor,” Nature 453, 481-488 (2008).
Schreiner, P., Chen, X., Husnjak, K., Randles, L., Zhang, N., Elsasser, S., Finley, D., Dikic, I.*, Walters, K. J.*, Groll, M.*: “Ubiquitin docking at the proteasome via a novel PH domain interaction,” Nature 453, 548-552 (2008).
