2004 ASBMB Fellowship: Ann Kwan

Ann Kwan was first introduced to the exciting world of research when she was awarded a Summer vacation scholarship in 1998/99, which allowed her to work in the laboratory of Dr Joel Mackay in the Department of Biochemistry, Sydney University.

It was an eye-opening and fascinating experience for the little second year undergraduate student as she undertook structural studies of a small zinc-binding domain from the transcription coactivator CBP. The world of structural biology and transcription was just like Legoland with new pieces waiting to be discovered and assembled with other pieces to form bigger and better structures with different functions. To Ann, this was just incredible!

In fact, Ann loved the work and the lab so much that she commenced her Honours year in the same lab in 2000 and then her PhD in 2001. The initial focus was to structurally characterise a small protein domain known as the Plant Homoedomain (PHD) commonly found in transcription factors using NMR spectroscopy. The unique structural properties of the PHD domain led Ann to investigate the use the PHD domain as a structural framework for presenting novel protein functions. By introducing a series of mutations, the PHD domain was demonstrated to be structurally very stable. Ann is currently assessing the suitability of using the PHD domain for presenting novel functions using phage display. Since then, she has solved the structures of other proteins of interest to the lab, including several zinc fingers, an antifreeze protein and a hydrophobic rodlet protein.

The generous ASBMB fellowship will allow Ann to attend the 21st International Conference on Magnetic resonance in Biological Systems, to be held in Hyderbad, India, in January 2005. She hopes to learn about the most up-to-date NMR techniques in structural determination of biological molecules and to see the width and breath of current research carried out by the international NMR community.

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This page last modified: October 10, 2008.