[Faculty] Fwd: [CSRC-SDSU COLLOQUIUM]: What roles do evolutionarily conserved metalloantibodies play in biology

[Jose Castillo]

DATE: Friday, September 20th, 2013

TITLE: What roles do evolutionarily conserved metalloantibodies play in
biology

TIME: 3:30 PM
LOCATION: GMCS 214

SPEAKER: Dr. Tom Huxford. Dept. of Chemistry at San Diego State University

Antibodies are soluble plasma proteins that are secreted by mature B cells
as an integral part of the adaptive immune system. Functioning antibodies
are generated via shuffling, recombination, and mutation of precursor genes
of somatic cells. These processes are highly regulated to insure that the
resulting antibodies recognize foreign antigens rather than self. Recently,
we employed x-ray crystallography and in vitro biochemistry to discover
that an antibody raised against the lipid sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P)
employs a pair of bridging calcium atoms in binding to its antigen. This
observation raised several questions about the role of metals in
antibody:antigen interactions and the source of the antibody metal binding
potential. Preliminary data suggest that the potential to bind to calcium
is evolutionarily conserved in some antibodies at the genome level. This
begs further questions about the purpose for genome sequence conservation
among hypervariable regions of antibodies and what evolutionary advantages
might be conveyed by metalloantibodies.

HOST: Dr. Jose Castillo

For future events, please visit our website at:

http://www.csrc.sdsu.edu/colloquium.html



-- 

Jose E. Castillo  Ph.D.

Director / Professor

Computational Science Research Center

5500 Campanile Dr

San Diego State University

San Diego CA 92182-1245

619 5947205/3430, Fax 619-594-2459

 http://www.csrc.sdsu.edu/mimetic-book/

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