Welcome to the Duax Lab's Website:

William Duax, Ph.D. a H.A. Hauptman Distinguished Scientist combines multiple disciplinarily areas of research involving bioinformatics, proteomics, genomics, and x-ray crystallography.

The lab has several interests with a strong focus on the evolution the genetic code.

1. We focus on studying extent extremophile bacteria, which have been long thought to contain within their genomic DNA keys to answering questions about DNA evolution. Two bacteria are of interest, Anaeromyxobacter dehalogenans and Kineococcus radiotolerans, these bacterium are living relics that may hold a key to understanding the origin and evolution of the present genetic code.

2. Every living organism contains a 'factory' in their cell for protein production. The ribosome, a large macromolecular structure, is this evolutionary factory. It is made up of several rRNAs and proteins. Our interest focuses on the evolution the ribosomal proteins within the macromolecular ribosome. On a larger focus between prokaryotes and eukaryotic cells.

3. The super family of Short chain oxidoreductase (SCOR) enzymes has 16,485 members. They control metabolic and catabolic processes for a host of nutrients, hormones and toxins including sugars, steroids and xenobiotics. The substrates of 44% (7,311) of the SCOR enzymes are known. This leaves more than half of a critical family of proteins with unknown substrate. We are trying to trace the evolution of these enzymes to determine the cofactor, substrate and potential metabolic pathway for these enzymes.

Past Summer's: 2008

The high school students, along with SUNY Buffalo gradudate student Robert Huether, and SUNY Buffalo undergraduate Sanjay Connare, recently presented their work at the "Undergraduate Biomathematics Day" in Niagara Falls, NY.

Peru 2008 

course_ppt 

tutorial