Tong Liang
Honorary Professor
Institute of Advanced Materials
The Institute of Advanced Materials
China
Biography
1983: Bachelor degree, Peking University. 1989: PhD degree, University of California, Berkeley.
Research Interest
Research Interets: A major focus of our current research is on enzymes that are involved in fatty acid metabolism. These include acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACC), carnitine acyltransferase,AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK)and others. These enzymes are important targets for drug discovery against obesity, diabetes and other human diseases. The goals of our research are to produce structural information on these enzymes and to understand their functions at the molecular level. The structural information will also lay the foundation for drug discovery against these targets. Another area of our research is on proteins involved in pre-mRNA 3'-end processing. Most eukaryotic mRNA precursors must undergo cleavage and polyadenylation in their 3'-ends before they can function as mRNAs.This processing machinery contains more than 16 protein factors,which form several sub-complexes (CPSF, CstF). The goal of our research is to understand the molecular basis of this important event.We will produce crystal structures of the protein subunits, protein-protein complexes, and protein-RNA complexes,and carry out functional studies to assess the structural information. In addition, I will continue my interest in the development of new techniques and computer programs for macromolecular crystallography.
Publications
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3. T.H. Tran, Y.-S. Hsiao, J. Jo, C.-Y. Chou, L.E.P. Dietrich, T. Walz & L. Tong. (2015). Structure and function of a single-chain, multi-domain long-chain acyl-CoA carboxylase. Nature, 518, 120-124.
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2. B.A. Webb,* F. Forouhar,* F.-E. Szu, J. Seetharaman, L. Tong$ & D.L. Barber.$ (2015). Structures of human phosphofructokinase-1 and atomic basis of cancer-associated mutations. Nature, 523, 111-114. (*-equal first authors, $-co-corresponding authors)
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1. J. Wei & L. Tong. (2015). Crystal structure of the 500-kDa yeast acetyl-CoA carboxylase holoenzyme dimer. Nature, 526, 723-727.
