Tan Khanh Nguyen
Biography
I graduated from Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Vietnam and then pursued a Master’s degree in Pharmacy at Dongguk University, South Korea. Afterward, I worked as a researcher at Yonsei University. My expertise includes protein expression, molecular modeling, and drug discovery, with several publications in these areas. My research interests focus on integrating AI, molecular modeling, and experimental methods to accelerate structural biology investigation and drug discovery. GlyCanDrug presents a valuable opportunity to expand my knowledge and connect with other people for insightful discussions.
Research project objectives
The DC4 project focuses on the biochemical and structural characterization of recombinant glycosyltransferases including STs and FTs. The project aims to establish robust expression and purification protocols for these enzymes, followed by molecular modeling studies to explore the binding modes of potential small-molecule inhibitors. To validate the computational predictions, binding assays and inhibitory assays will be performed to assess compound activity. Furthermore, structural biology approaches, including X-ray crystallography or Cryo-EM, will be employed to determine high-resolution 3D structures of the glycosyltransferases in complex with inhibitors, providing critical insights for future structure-based drug design
Universidad Zaragoza (UNIZAR)
The host laboratory (BIFI–UNIZAR) has the usual and appropriate research facilities, infrastructure and equipment in order to carry out the expression, purification, biophysical characterization of proteins and the determination of crystal structures. We have all the required equipments to do molecular biology, express and purify proteins and obtain protein crystals. Furthermore, we do have several ITC apparatus, SPR (Biacore), UV and fluorescence spectrophotometers, circular dichroism, fluorometers, luminometers for 96 well plates proteins and our own X-ray diffractometer. Finally, we do have routine access to the synchrotrons ALBA and Diamond.
Prof. Ramón Hurtado-Guerrero
Expert in Structural Glycobiology, specializing in unraveling the molecular mechanisms of glycan processing enzymes
Prof. Henrik Clausen
Head of Center for Glycomics at University of Copenhagen
Prof. Mads H. Clausen
Chemical biologist, expert in medicinal chemistry and synthetic carbohydrate chemistry
Selected papers (10): * indicates corresponding authorship
1.-) Lira-Navarrete E, et al., Rovira C*, Hurtado-Guerrero R*. (2014) Substrate-guided front-face reaction revealed by combined structural snapshots and metadynamics for the polypeptide GalNAc-T2. Angew Chem Int Ed Engl 53(31):8206-10. (89 citations/9 yrs)
2.-) Lira-Navarrete E, et al., Hurtado-Guerrero R*. (2015) Dynamic interplay between catalytic and lectin domains of GalNAc-transferases modulates protein O-glycosylation. Nat Commun 6:6937. (92 citations/8 yrs)
3.-) Valero-González J, et al., Hurtado-Guerrero R*. (2016) A proactive role of water molecules in acceptor recognition by protein O-fucosyltransferase 2. Nat Chem Biol 12(4):240-6. (65 citations/7 yrs)
4.-) de Las Rivas M, et al., Hurtado-Guerrero R*. (2017) The interdomain flexible linker of the polypeptide GalNAc transferases dictates their long-range glycosylation preferences. Nat Commun 8(1):1959. (35 citations/6 yrs)
5.-) Park JB, et al., Hurtado-Guerrero R*, Angulo J*, Hardwidge PR, Shin JS*, Cho HS*. (2018) Structural basis for arginine glycosylation of host substrates by bacterial effector proteins. Nat Commun 9(1):4283. (52 citations/5 yrs)
6.-) Fang W, et al., Hurtado-Guerrero R, Arroyo J*, van Aalten DMF*. (2019) Mechanisms of redundancy and specificity of the Aspergillus fumigatus Crh transglycosylases. Nat Commun 10(1):1669. (21 citations/4 yrs)
7.-) García-García A, et al., Hurtado-Guerrero R*. (2020) Structural basis for substrate specificity and catalysis of α1,6-fucosyltransferase. Nat Commun 2020;11(1):973. (37 citations/3 yrs)
8.-) de Las Rivas M, et al., Hurtado-Guerrero R*. (2020) Molecular basis for fibroblast growth factor 23 O-glycosylation by GalNAc-T3. Nat Chem Biol 16(3):351-360. (42 citations/3 yrs)
9.-) González-Ramírez AM, et al., Marcelo F, Corzana F*, Hurtado-Guerrero R*. (2022) Structural basis for the synthesis of the core 1 structure by C1GalT1. Nat Commun 13(1):2398. (6 citations/1 yr)
10.-) Taleb V, et al., Rovira C*, Hurtado-Guerrero R*. (2022) Structural and mechanistic insights into the cleavage of clustered O-glycan patches-containing glycoproteins by mucinases of the human gut. Nat Commun 13(1):4324. (7 citations/1 yr)