Predicting and Verifying Binding Sites of Regulatory Proteins

Charles E. Lawrence, a computer scientist at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Health Department, has a joint appointment as a research professor on the Rensselaer faculty, a new formal Bioinformatics collaboration between Rensselaer and Wadsworth. Dr. Lawrence uses statistical models for the identification and characterization of gene regulatory elements.

In work financed by the National Institutes of Health, his group studied transcription regulation on e coli bacteria. Using statistical methods, he was able to identify binding sites for fabA, a specific regulatory protein. Experimental work by biochemists verified the existence of a site that was not previously known. With the help of 20 years of such experimental work, scientists have figured out and validated the regulation of about 200 proteins in e coli.

Dr. Lawrence, who has used innovative Bioinformatics methods to make 2,000 predictions, is working with Steven Cramer,Rensselaer professor of chemical engineering, to develop high throughput methods to test all 2,000 predictions in the next three years.

Dr. Lawrence is also working on other genes, including Pseudomonas, which is involved in cystic fibrosis.

Dr. Lawrence and Jackie Collier, assistant professor of biology at Rensselaer, have received a $1.5 million, three-year grant from the Department of Energy to study cyanobacteria, which help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.

Contact: Charles E. Lawrence (518) 276-6410, lawrence@wadsworth.org.