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Shahram Misaghi
"Protein Crystallography and Bacterial Resistance"
Sponsor: Robert M. Glaeser, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 

• Project Description
• Scholar's Photo
• Scholar's Journal

The goal of Shahram's Senior Honors Thesis in Molecular and Cell Biology is to obtain a detailed picture of the structure of a novel protein, called Acr A, that has recently been discovered to play an essential role in bacterial resistance to certain antibiotics. Using the technique of protein crystallography, Shahram plans to purify large amounts of Acr A protein from bacteria, crystallize the protein, and then study the chemical structure of this protein. His intention is to identify potential weak points that can be attacked by additional drugs, disabling the process by which the bacteria are able to maintain a high level of resistance to otherwise beneficial antibiotics. By discovering the relationship between the protein's structure and its biochemical function, Shahram hopes to contribute knowledge that will have important applications in the development of medically useful drugs.

Living and doing research are both full of surprises that pop up in my way, and I have to find my way around them. For instance, this summer I had to redo two days of experiments because I forgot to add glucose to my medium. It really annoyed me to see that I forgot something as common and simple as sugar. If it was ampiciline or IPTG or magnesium, it would have been much less irritating. I like challenges; that's why I enjoy doing research. It supplies me with numerous problems, which keep me busy. Two weeks ago, I decided to do a mass-spec of my protein, in order to determine its exact molecular weight. The professor in charge informed me that my chances of getting a good result were less than two percent. Being a stubborn person, I decided to proceed anyway, and the results turned out so well, that the professor asked me to give him more data for his own further analysis. When a problem comes my way, I step back, look at it, curse it, and then run straight towards it, in order to tackle it and knock it over. I should confess that most of the time, I am the one who gets knocked down. But I get up again and go right back at it.