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Nicole S. Sampson, Ph.D.-Professor, Department of Chemistry

Protein Structure and Function

Ph.D., 1990, University of California, Berkeley
American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship, Harvard University, 1991-1993.

Our research program focuses on proteins. How do they effect
catalysis? How does the interaction of two or more proteins initiate a biological
process? The methodologies utilized in our laboratory comprise a broad range
of techniques; they include organic synthesis, enyzme kinetics, NMR spectroscopy
and molecular biology.

Work is ongoing in three different areas:

  1. Study of catalysis
    and binding of steroids
  2. Study of protein
    hinges
  3. Investigation
    of proteins involved in adhesion and signalling during mammalian fertilization

Please visit the Sampson
Research Group page at the Department of Chemsitry for more information

Selected Publications

  • Chen, H.; Sampson, N.S., (1999)
    "Mediation of Mammalian Sperm-Egg Fusion: Evidence That Mouse Egg a6b1 Integrin
    is the Receptor for Sperm Fertilinb," Chem. Biol., 6, 1-10.
  • Yue, Q. K.; Kass, I. J.; Sampson,
    N. S.; Vrielink, A., (1999) "Crystal Structure Determination of Cholesterol
    Oxidase from Streptomyces and Structural Characterization of Key Active Site
    Mutants," Biochemistry, 38, 4277-4286.
  • Sun, J.; Sampson, N. S., (1999)
    "Understanding Protein Lids: Kinetic Analysis of Active Hinge Mutants in Triosephosphate
    Isomerase," Biochemistry, 38, 11474-11481.
  • Gupta, S.; Li, H.; Sampson, N. S.,
    (2000) "Characterization of Fertilinb-Disintegrin Binding Specificity in Sperm-Egg
    Adhesion," Bioorg. Med. Chem., 8, 723-729.
  • McCann, A.; Sampson, N. S., (2000)
    "A C6-FAD Adduct is Formed Upon Irreversible Inactivation of Cholesterol Oxidase
    by 2a,3a-Cyclopropano-5-cholestan-3b-ol," J. Am.Chem. Soc., 122, 35-39.
  • Chen, X.; Wolfgang, D.; Sampson,
    N. S., (2000) "Use of the Parallax-Quench Method to Determine the Position of
    the Active-Site Loop of Cholesterol Oxidase in Lipid Bilayers," in press, Biochemistry.
  • Sampson, N. S.; Sarah T. Ryan; Deborah
    A. Enke; Dominic Cosgrove; Victor Koteliansky; Philip Gotwals (2000) "Identification
    of a Role for a1Integrin in Alport Syndrome using Global Analysis of Gene Expression,"
    submitted to Nature Medicine.