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Dr. Jim Huntley
Bioinformatic tools, resources and strategies for
comparative structural studies of peanut allergens |
| Legume seed-storage proteins, such as those from soybean and peanut, represent an
important source of protein in the human diet. While generally well tolerated, these proteins also represent
a potentially serious allergenic threat to many individuals. Despite high sequence similarity of several
peanut allergens to their relatively hypoallergenic soy and kidney bean counterparts, it is not well understood
why peanuts elicit such an acute allergenic response. We have employed a number of bioinformatics tools and
strategies to further investigate the relationship between allergenicity and the primary/secondary/tertiary
structure of legume seed-storage proteins. We find that mapping and comparison of multiple features (sequence
conservation among classes, physical location of IgE epitopes, residues critical for IgE binding, etc.) on
known and modeled structures provide for a better understanding of the relationship between legume protein
structures and the potential for novel legume varieties to elicit reduced allergenic response in the human
population. |
| Dr. Jim Huntley is a Senior Research Scientist at the National Center for Genome
Resources in Santa Fe. Dr. Huntley develops models to investigate the role of protein dynamics in protein
function. In particular, he studies legume allergens and cell cycle proteins that serve as targets
for cancer therapy. Previously, Dr. Huntley was Assistant Professor at New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU)
and Director of the NMHU Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions program. He completed his
post-doctoral training in Molecular Biology at The Scripps Research Institute and holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry
from Arizona State University, an M.S. in Medical Physics from the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center, and a B.A. in Physics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. |
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