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Dr. Lance Hellman
( Nevada State University )
- Institution:Nevada State University
- Departments: physical and life sciences
- Research Fields: Biothermodynamics, Biochemistry, Structural Immunology, Structural Biochemistry, Dna Repair, Structural Guided Design
- Disciplines: Biochemistry, Biophysics and Molecular Biology, Biological and Biomedical Sciences
- Location:Clark County
- Funding:EPSCoR - Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, INBRE - IdeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence
Mentoring
Experience as a mentor has been positive for both me and my students. I have learned as much from my students as they have learned from me. Getting students excited about what I love, research, is the most rewarding part of my job. I hope that the experience they gain from working in my lab helps motive them to continue on in science and to consider futures in research. Many of my former students have successfully written for external funding to continue their research. My students learn molecular biology, biochemistry, and biothermodynamic skills. Students have continued from my lab into graduate school.
Biography
My research focuses primarily at probing the affects of amino acid perturbation on the overall tertiary structure. We use O6-alkylguanine-DNA alkyltranferase (AGT) as our model protein. AGT is a small DNA repair protein that remove alkylations on guanine and thymine residues. My lab uses structure guided design to alter the tertiary structure of AGT and measure the biothermodynamic affects of these mutations. We are interested in how these mutations affect the global stability of AGT by differential scanning fluorimetry. We also probe how these mutations affect AGT’s ability to bind in a cooperative manner by gel shift assays and fluorescence anisotropy techniques.
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