Professional Address:
Department of Biochemistry
University of Iowa College of Medicine
51 Newton Road, 4-711 BSB
Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone: (319) 335-7912
E-mail: kkwsjc@hotmail.com
Education:
1987-1991 National Taiwan Univ. B.S., Agricultural Chemistry
1992-1994 Old Dominion Univ. M.S., Biotechnology
1994-2000 Univ. of Iowa Ph.D. program, Biochemistry
Award:
1997-1999 Pre-doctoral fellowship of American Heart Association in Iowa affiliates
Professional Experience:
1. Research trainee in the Institute Zoology, Academic Sinica
Advisor: Dr. Wu, Zin-Le
Experimental techniques: DNA purification, Southern Blot, DNA probe design.
2. Research trainee in the microbiology Lab., Dept. Agriculture Chemistry
Advisor: Dr. Tsing, Hsing
Project: Isolation of an anaerobic bacterial from mud.
Experimental techniques: anaerobic cell culture and protein purification
3. M.S. in Dept. Microbiology and immunology, Easter Virginia Medical School
Advisor: Dr. Ciavarra, R.
Project: Role of heat shock protein 70 kDa cognate in limiting thermal inactivation and refolding of heat-denatured nuclear type I topoisomerase
Experimental techniques: Mammalian cell culture, Isotope protein labeling, Protein purification, Immuno precipitation, Cell in situ staining, 2-D gel electrophoresis, Western blot, Immunoblots, ATP-affinity chromatography and Ion strength chromatography.
4. Ph.D. program in Dept. Biochemistry
Advisor: Dr. Peter Rubenstein
Thesis: Modulation of actin filaments by tropomyosin and porin
Experimental techniques: Protein chemical modification, FPLC, Gel filtration chromatography, DNase I affinity chromatography, Ion strength chromatography, Yest genetics, Plasmid cloning, Side-directed mutagenisis,DNA sequence, Fluorescence Microscopy, Confocuse Microscopy and Elecronic Microscopy.
Publications:
Ciavarra, RP., Goldman, C., Wen, KK., Tedeschi, B., and Castora, F.J. (1994) Heat stress induces hsc70/nuclear topoisomerase I complex formation in vivo: evidence for hsc70-mediated, ATP-independent reactivation in vitro. Pro. Nat. Acad. Sci. of USA 91: 1751-5
Ciavarra, RP., Wen, KK., and Tedeshi, B.. (1995) Hsc70/Nuclear protein interaction during thermal injury. Mol. Biol. Cell 6: 423a
K.-K. Wen, Kuang, B. and Rubenstein, P.A. (1997) Restoration of polymerization to a polymerization defective yeast actin by tropomyosin and a mutant tropomyosin missing internal repeats 2-4. Biophysical J., 74: A47
Giardina, P.C., Wen, K.-K., Williams, R.A., Lubaroff, D., Blake, M.S., Rubenstein, P.A. and Apicella, M.A. (1998) Neisseria-encoded porin enhances actin polymerization by stabilizing actin nucleation in vitro. (Abstract)
Giardina, P.C., Wen, K.-K., Williams, R.A., Lubaroff, D., Blake, M.S., Rubenstein, P.A. and Apicella, M.A. (1998) The Neisseria gonorrhoeae major outer membrane protein, PI binds to and enhances polymerization of actin. (Abstract).
Edas, J.C., Mahoney, N.M., Vorobiev, S., Wen, K.-K., Rubenstein, P.A., Haarer, B.K. and Almo, S.C. (1998) Structure determination and characterization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae profilin. Biochemistry , 37, 11171-11181.
Wen, K.-K., Giardina, P.C., Blake, M.S., Apicella, M.A., Rubenstein, P.A. (1998) The interaction of Neisseria-encoded porins with actin in vitro. (Abstract)
Wen, K.-K., Cheng, D. and Rubenstein, P.A. (1999) Sac6p but not tropomyosin is required for the viability of yeast expressing a polymerization-defect actin. (Abstract)
Wen, K.-K., Giardina, P.C., Blake, M.S., Michael, J.E., Apicella, M.A., and Rubenstein, P.A. (2000) Interaction of the Gonococcal Porin P.IB with G- and F-actin. Biochemistry , 39, 8638-8647.
Wen, K.-K., Fillman, C. and Rubenstein, P.A. (2000) Different phenotype for deletion of TPM2 and TPM1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing a polymerization-defective mutant actin (V266G, L267G). (Abstract)
Wen, K.-K., Kuang, B. and Rubenstein, P.A. (2000) Tropomyosin-dependent filament formation of a polymerization-defective yeast actin (V266G, L267G) J. Biol. Chem. 275, 40594-40600.
