Ben M. Dunn, Distinguished Professor at Biochemistry UF

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Ben M. Dunn

Distinguished Professor

Ph.D., University of California Santa Barbara, 1971

Research

Protein Structure-Function

Office:

R3-226 A

Lab:

R3-191 A

Telephone:

(352) 392-3362

Email:

bdunn@ufl.edu

Home Page:

http:// expertise.cos.com/cgi-bin/exp.cgi?id=401891

BIOGRAPHY
Professor Ben M. Dunn worked with Thomas C. Bruice at the University of California Santa Barbara on the mechanism of lysozyme and earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1971. He examined the mechanism of nucleases as a Postdoctoral Associate and a Staff Research Fellow with Christian B. Anfinsen at the NIH. Dr. Dunn joined the Faculty at the University of Florida in 1974 and rose to the rank of Professor in 1986. He has won the College of Medicine Faculty Research Prize and became a Distinguished Professor in 1998. Dr. Dunn has served on many NIH review panels and is Editor-in-Chief of Protein and Peptide Letters and Current Protein and Peptide Science.
RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
The research of my lab is focused on understanding the specificity of the aspartic proteinase family. This family includes the gastric enzymes pepsin and gastricsin, cellular enzymes cathepsin D and cathepsin E, enzymes from the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and the retroviral enzymes such as HIV and FIV PR. We utilize site-specific mutagenesis as well as domain exchange to ascertain the effect on catalysis, and obtain structural information via crystallography or NMR. Given that we must have pure samples of fully functional proteins and because we are working with many mutant forms of recombinant proteins, we frequently solve problems and optimize protein folding. Our work on active site specificity has proved valuable in the process of drug design for targets involved in infectious diseases.