User:Daniel M Jordan

Contact Info



 * Daniel M Jordan
 * Graduate Student in Biophysics
 * Laboratory of Shamil R. Sunyaev
 * Division of Genetics, Department of Medicine
 * Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
 * Email me through OpenWetWare

Education

 * 2006, BA Physics & Philosophy, Yale University

Research interests
My main interest is in modeling the relationship between protein structures and evolutionary processes. To briefly summarize: in principle, molecular biology tells us that most functional mutations should be functional because they modify the structure of a protein. Interpreting the functional effect of mutations based on their effects on protein structures has not been terribly fruitful so far -- the most successful methods use primarily phylogenetic information. One major area of my research involves attempting to develop protein structure based heuristics that can improve functional predictions for mutations. I have had some success with developing such heuristics for specific human diseases; see my paper in the Feb 2011 issue of AJHG, in which I and my colleagues develop a proof-of-concept predictor for a specific genetic disease. Another area of research, which I am just beginning on, is attempting to understand the forces that control the evolution of protein structures, and map out the constraints that evolution places on protein structures.

Publications

 * 1) HCMPrediction pmid=21310275
 * 2) COSTBReview pmid=20399638
 * 3) CSAPrediction pmid=17526036

Useful links

 * Introductory tutorial
 * OpenWetWare help pages