Research Interests

Research in biophysics, with emphases on computational design and study of druglike agents that might be useful for treatments of various diseases.

 

Recent Publications

¨ Targeted Inhibitors of Plk1, D. S. Dalafave, in preparation.

¨ Design of Druglike Small Molecules for Possible Inhibition of Antiapoptotic BCL-2, BCL-W, and BFL-1 Proteins, D. S. Dalafave, Biomedical Engineering and Computational Biology, 2010: 2  11–21 (2010).

¨ Inhibition of Antiapoptotic Bcl-xl, Bcl-2, and Mcl-1 Proteins by Small Molecule Mimetics, D. S. Dalafave and G. Prisco. Cancer Informatics, 2010(9): 169-177 (2010).

¨ Computational Design of Anti-Cancer Molecules, D. S. Dalafave. International Journal: Design Principles and Practices, 4(2), 173 (2010).

¨ Thermoelectric properties of Re₆Ga_xSe_yTe_15−y (0 ≤ x ≤ 2; 0 ≤ y ≤ 7.5), D. S. Dalafave. Mat. Chemistry and Physics, 119(1-2): 195 (2010).

¨ Prediction of Functional Engrailed Homology-1 Protein Motif from Sequence", D. S. Dalafave. Bioinformation, 4(6): 229 (2009).

 

Recent Conference Presentations

¨ Design of Targeted Inhibitors of Polo-like Kinase 1 (Plk1), D. S. Dalafave, American Physical Society March Meeting, Dallas, TX (2011).

¨ Efficient Method for Computational Design of Small Molecules with Druglike Properties, D. S. Dalafave and K. Jani, Biophysical Society 55th Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD (2011).

¨ Functionality Prediction of WXXF-like Protein Motif from Amino Acid Sequence, D. S. Dalafave. Biophysical Society 54rd Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2010).

¨ Computational Design of Anti-Cancer Proteins, D. S. Dalafave. The 4th International Conference on Design Principles and Practices, Chicago, IL (2010).

¨ Studying interactions between COP1 regulatory protein and HY5 transcription factor, D. S. Dalafave. 7th European Biophysics Congress - EBSA, Genoa, Italy (2009).

¨ Predicting Binding Sites of EH1-like Motifs from Their Amino Acid Sequences, D. S. Dalafave. Biophysical Society 53rd Annual Meeting, Boston, MA (2009). Biophysical Journal, 96(3): 651 (2009).

¨ Predicting New Engrailed Homology Motifs from Structural and Energy Studies of the WD Propeller Domain Bindings to Known motifs", D. S. Dalafave. Structural Bioinformatics and Computational Biophysics 3DSig Meeting, Toronto, Canada (2008).

· Prevalence of EH1 Motifs in Hox and Fox Domain Containing Transcription Factors from the Sponge Suberites domuncula, D. S. Dalafave. The Joint Meeting of the Biophysical Society 52nd Annual Meeting & 16th International Biophysics Congress, Long Beach, CA (2008).

 

Recent Student Research Projects

¨ Sean Vanadia, Computational Design of Targeted Inhibitors of Plk1; to be presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2011) and at the American Physical Society March Meeting (2012).

¨ Krupa Jani, Small Molecule Inhibitors of Polo-Like Kinase 1, presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2011).

¨ Yanique Riviere, Investigation of the Electrical Activity of the Heart - Electrocardiogram (EKG) Measurements, presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2011).

¨ Krupa Jani, Computational Design of Small Molecule Mimetics with Druglike Properties, presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2010); also at Biophysical Society 55th Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland (2011).

¨ Greg Prisco, Interactions of small molecule mimetics with Bcl-Xl and Bcl-2 proteins, presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2010).

¨ Kevin Chen, Binding affinities of BH3 domain and Bcl-Xl protein, presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2009).

¨ Calvin Woo, Inhibition of Bfl-1 protein by pro-apoptotic protein mimetics, presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2009).

¨ Greg Prisco, Generating and Evaluating Putative EH1-like Motifs Using Computational Methods, presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2008).

¨ Timothy Craven, Modeling of Metal Substitutions into Protophyrin IX, presented at the Celebration of Student Achievement (2008).

 

Special recognition: Kevin Chen won the American Association for Cancer Research Thomas J. Bardos Science Education Award in 2010. Out of about 500 applicants, Kevin was one of only a few students who won the award. This two-year award is intended to provide support and inspiration for science undergraduates to enter the field of cancer research. The award provides a unique educational opportunity for talented undergraduates to develop their scientific careers. Kevin presented his research on "Predicting and improving potential anticancer proteomimetics with computational modeling" at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 101st Annual Meeting, Washington D.C..