Research Program: Carcinogenesis & Chemoprevention
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics

walte048@umn.edu
612-625-2688 — office
612-626-2353 and 612-625-8764 — lab
Preferred method of contact: e-mail

Research Interests

Research in the Walters laboratory specializes in providing dynamic pictures of how proteins interact with each other. Of special focus is the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, which is well renowned for its role in targeted protein degradation. This system also participates in transcriptional regulation, apoptosis, DNA repair, immune response and cell cycle control. Malfunction of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway is associated with neurological disorders, inflammatory processes and cancer. The Walters lab explores how key components of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway interact to facilitate diverse cellular events. Towards this aim they have provided three-dimensional structures of the ubiquitin recognition proteins hHR23a (published in PNAS 2003) and S5a (published in J. Mol. Biol. 2005). In addition they have defined how each of these proteins interacts with ubiquitin (published in Biochemistry 2003). Structural work in the Walters laboratory is performed in solution by using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy; a technology that is also used to determine the dynamic properties of biomolecules.

Selected Publications

Kang, Y., Vossler, R., Diaz-Martinez, L. A., Clarke, D. J., Walters, K. J.: UBL/UBA ubiquitin receptor proteins bind a common tetraubiquitin chain. J. Mol. Biol. 356, 1027-1035 (2006).

Wang, Q., Young, P., Walters, K. J.: Structure of S5a bound to monoubiquitin provides a model for polyubiquitin recognition. J. Mol. Biol. 348, 727-739 (2005). (Cover)

Wang, Q., Walters, K J.: Chemical Shift assignments of the (poly)ubiquitin-binding region of the proteasome subunit S5a. J. Biomol. NMR 30, 231-232 (2004).

Wang, Q., Goh, A. M., Howley, P. M., Walters, K. J.: Ubiquitin recognition by the DNA repair protein hHR23a. Biochemistry 42, 13529-13535 (2003).

Walters, K. J., Lech, P. J., Goh, A. M., Howley, P. M.: DNA repair protein hHR23a alters its protein structure upon binding proteasomal subunit S5a. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 100, 12694-12699 (2003).