User:Peter Chien

Contact Info



 * Peter Chien
 * University of Massachusetts, Amherst
 * 710 N. Pleasant St.
 * LGRT818
 * Amherst, MA 01003
 * Email me through OpenWetWare

I work at UMass Amherst in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department. I learned about OpenWetWare when I was at MIT for my postdoc, and, although initially scared off by Jason and Barry - I've joined because I like the sharing of information/resources/science.

Education

 * 2003-2009, postdoc, MIT
 * 2003, PhD Biophysics, UCSF
 * 1998, BS Physics/Biology, MIT

Research interests
Protein degradation is an essential process for all biological life. Damaged or improperly folded proteins need to be cleared from the cell before they elicit toxic effects. Regulatory proteins need to be degraded so that the response they support exists only as long as it is necessary. However, as proteolysis is an irreversible event, great care must be taken to only degrade those factors as needed without disturbing the balance of other proteins. In eukaryotes, exquisite selectivity is generated through cascading molecular events that together yield a ubiquitination signal which targets a substrate for degradation. As no such system exists in bacteria, the highly specific nature of protein degradation must be accomplished at the level of direct recognition of the substrate or by utilizing auxiliary factors to improve specificity. The general objectives of the Chien lab are to understand how these substrates are recognized in a precise fashion and the impact of substrate degradation on the various regulatory networks of the cell.

Publications
// leave a comment about a paper here
 * 1) 10 pmid=20014030
 * 2) 9 pmid=19602145
 * 3) 8 pmid=17937918
 * 4) 7 pmid=17420450
 * 5) 6 pmid=15820678
 * 6) 5 pmid=15189155
 * 7) 4 pmid=15029196
 * 8) 3 pmid=12931190
 * 9) 2 pmid=11242084
 * 10) 1 pmid=10660050

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