The FightAIDS@Home Project in the Olson Laboratory is the computational component of a larger project at TSRI funded by the National Institute of Health, and led by Dr. Olson. Researchers participating in the FightAids@Home Project are:
Arthur J. Olson, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, TSRI
David S. Goodsell, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Molecular Biology, TSRI
Rik Belew, Ph.D. Professor and Chairman of Cognitive Science, UCSD
Garrett M. Morris, D. Phil., Research Manager, InhibOx, Ltd., Oxford, UK
Alex L. Perryman, Ph.D., Research Associate in Prof. Olson's lab, Dept. of Molecular Biology, TSRI
Stefano Forli, Ph.D., Research Associate in Prof. Olson's lab, Dept. of Molecular Biology, TSRI
Sargis Dallakyan, Ph.D., Research Programmer III in Prof. Olson's lab, Dept. of Molecular Biology, TSRI
Daniel N. Santiago, Ph.D., Research Associate in Prof. Olson's Molecular Graphics Lab, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, TSRI
Other laboratories within the project utilize the information generated by the computations in selecting, synthesizing, characterizing and testing new inhibitor molecules against HIV. These collaborating laboratories are:
The Elder Laboratory - Virology and Molecular Biology. The Elder laboratory produces mutational variants of the HIV Protease and develops and tests candidate inhibitors in vitro (ie. In the test tube).
The Stout Laboratory - Xray Crystallography. The Stout Laboratory experimentally determines the detailed atomic structures of HIV protease mutations and complexes of these structures with inhibitors.
The Torbett Laboratory - The Torbet Laboratory develops cell-based systems for producing HIV proteins and for testing the effects of potential inhibitors on the virus in living cells.
The Finn Laboratory - Synthetic Chemistry. M.G. Finn's lab studies the chemistry and self-assembly process of virus particles, mechanisms of catalysis, and the use of "click chemistry" to design and synthesize new libraries of ligands that are then tested for anti-HIV activity.
The Fokin Laboratory - Synthetic Chemistry. Associate Prof. Valery Fokin was trained in the Sharpless Laboratory (Prof. Barry Sharpless won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2001). The Fokin lab continues to design and apply strategies for synthesizing libraries of chemical compounds to test as potential inhibitors of HIV protease. They also provide guidance on the synthetic accessibility of potential modifications of the compounds we identify in the virtual screens performed in the FightAIDS@Home project.
David J. Looney, M.D. - Associate Prof. of Medicine, UCSD; Chief Infection Control Officer and Medical Director of Special Infectious Diseases Clinic, VA San Diego Healthcare System. Dr. Looney is the Medical Director of the AIDS Care activity at the VA hospital in San Diego, and he provides information about the particular types of drug-resistant mutant "super bugs" that are detected in samples collected from patients with HIV/AIDS.
Former Members of the FightAIDS@Home Team:
William "Lindy" Lindstrom, now a Scientist and Principal Investigator at Acelot, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
Alexandre Gillet, now a Software Engineer 2 at Illumina, Inc., San Diego, CA, USA.
Max Chang, Ph.D., now a Research Associate in Prof. Bruce Torbett's lab at TSRI
