Today, I'm highlighting the work primarily out of Chris Garcia's lab at Stanford Medical School. The Garcia lab had a very exciting idea on how to re-engineer a very important protein and the Pande lab played a part by providing computer simulations to help understand the mechanism by which the new protein worked. The results are very exciting. Check out the link below for more details.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-scientists-boost-potency-side-effects.html
SUMMARY. The utility of a naturally occurring protein given, sometimes to great effect, as a drug to treat advanced cancers is limited by the severe side effects it sometimes causes. But a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist has generated a mutant version of the protein whose modified shape renders it substantially more potent than the natural protein while reducing its toxicity.
