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Dr. Song Lee Awarded Discovery Grant

Posted by Martha Brillant on May 7, 2013 in Research, News
SEM showing S. gordonii biofilms
SEM showing S. gordonii biofilms

Dr. Song Lee has recently been awarded a 5 year NSERC Discovery Grant for his study of “Functional Analysis of Thiol-Diulfide Oxidoreductases in Steptococcus gordonii”.

This funding will support Dr. Lee’s long-term goal of understanding how disulfide bonds are formed in Gram-positive bacteria. Disufide bonds are stable bonds formed between two molecules of the amino acid cysteine. They are important because they allow a protein chain to fold into a complex three-dimensional shape. In proteins, form equals function - the shape of a protein is key to enabling it to carry out its work, such as building and secreting toxins, sticking to other cells to form a biofilm, or taking up DNA from its environment.

Although the ways in which disulfide bonds form in the other major group of bacteria (Gram-negative) is well known, such is not the case with Gram-positive bacteria. Dr. Lee’s research team has identified a protein they suspect is involved in disulfide bond formation in the Gram-positive dental plaque bacterium Streptococcus gordonii. With this new research funding they will further investigate this protein and its role.