Tony Hazbun
Title:
Associate Professor
PhD Granting Institution:
University of Notre Dame
Contact:
Email Address: thazbun@purdue.edu
Office Phone: 765-496-8228
Lab Website Link: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=9NQt-eUAAAAJ&hl=en
Primary Training Group:
Computational and Systems Biology
Secondary Training Groups:
Microbiology, Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Cancer Biology
Research Areas:
Systems Biology Genomics Proteomics Microbiome
Current Projects:
Protein N-terminal methylation: The alpha-NT methylation of proteins is a neglected post-translational modification in proteomics projects. N-terminal methyltransferase enzymes transfer a methyl group to the alpha-amino of the protein N-terminus but the downstream modification functions are rarely known and the global roles of these enzymes are unknown. The N-terminus of proteins, with the methionine removed and a canonical sequence motif (X-P-[K/R]), are preferentially recognized and methylated by the human and yeast N-terminal methyltransferases. Motif searching reveals 45 potential substrates in yeast that have a wide variety of biological functions in pathways that control protein translation and biogenesis, protein folding and degradation. Only three yeast alpha-NT methylation substrates have been validated including two ribosomal proteins and a proteasomal subunit. Our research has confirmed the methylation of six novel substrates including a small heat shock protein family member, Hsp31, which is involved in a network of stress response pathways. The emerging theme from our studies is that alpha-NT methylation in yeast regulates proteostasis and stress. Our hypothesis is that the yeast Tae1 methyltransferase is a modulator of a network of proteostasis pathways including protein translation, protein degradation and stress response. Our proposed studies will use an integrated and global approach combining proteomics, bioinformatics, genome engineering and molecular function studies to comprehensively characterize this insufficiently understood post-translational modification. Candida pathogenesis and host-microbiome interactions: We have published several papers investigating potential antifungal compounds for pathogenic Candida albicans. My role involved bioinformatic analysis, conceptualization, biological pathway analysis and hypothesis development for interpreting potential small molecular tagets. We are currently collaborating with Dr. Shankar Thangamani in the Vet School on projects that investigate the metabolite and microbiome-based regulation of C. albicans gastrointestinal pathogenic colonization.
Importance of Interdisciplinary Research:
Bringing together different fields provides new perspectives that can provide important breakthroughs. Reductionist approaches have an important role in science but it is becoming more evident that larger scale and interdisciplinary approaches are needed. Systems biology research provides a big picture view of biological processes that is become more essential as we uncover the complexities of biology.