The emergence of structural genomics, proteomics, and the large-scale sequencing of many genomes provides experimental access to regions of protein sequence-structure-function landscapes which have not been explored through traditional biochemical methods. Indeed, protein structure-function relationships can now be examined rigorously through the characterization of protein ensembles, which display structurally convergent—divergent solutions to analogous or very similar functional properties. In this modern biochemical context, my lab will use protein libraries, chemistry, biophysics, molecular biology and structural methods to examine the basis of molecular recognition in the context of several important biological problems, including structural and mechanistic aspects of multi-drug resistance, ligand-dependent molecular switches and metal ion homeostasis
