Speaker: Neel H. Shah, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Columbia University
Title: Sequence-dependent tuning of inputs and outputs in phosphotyrosine signaling
Abstract: Signal transduction through protein tyrosine phosphorylation is critical for many core functions of animal cells, including proliferation, survival, programmed death, and cell-cell communication. These processes are mediated by two large enzyme families, tyrosine kinases and tyrosine phosphatases, that collectively control the phosphorylation states of thousands of sites in human proteins. While it is well-established that tyrosine kinases and phosphatases can engage phosphorylation sites in a sequence dependent manner, we know surprisingly little about how the sequences of phosphosites actually shape and tune signaling pathways. In this talk, I will describe a high-throughput biochemical platform that we have developed to profile the sequence specificities of phosphotyrosine signaling proteins. I will discuss how this technique has yielded new insights into T cell activation and how it can be used for the large-scale characterization of disease-associated mutations proximal to tyrosine phosphorylation sites. Finally, I will describe our efforts to understand the sequence-dependent activation of signaling enzymes bearing phosphotyrosine-recognition domains.
For more information about this seminar, please contact Hyacinth Camillieri at hcamillieri@gc.cuny.edu