Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
PO Box 980614
Richmond, VA 23298-0614
Email: dpeterson@hsc.vcu.edu
Telephone: 804-828-5614
Education
- Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, 1970
- B.S., University of Notre Dame, 1966
Post-Doc
University of Iowa, 1972-1975
Research
The overall research interests of the laboratory are
concerned with the structure and function of viral
proteins. The major emphasis is currently on the
proteins if the hepatitis B virus, certain retroviruses,
and influenza viruses.
Many of the proteins of interest are complex, lipid
associated glycoproteins. Detailed knowledge of the
structure and arrangement of these proteins should
allow the identification of these structural domains
of the proteins which specify such functional activities
as antigenicity of virus/receptor interaction. This
information could allow the synthesis of corresponding
peptides or proteins by chemical or molecular biological
methods for the use as vaccines, diagnostic reagents,
or as model components for studying viral pathogenesis
or morphogenesis.
In order to accomplish these goals a wide variety
of physical and chemical techniques are being utilized.
These have included high resolution electron microscopy,
solution X-ray scattering, circular dichroism, and
Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy to study the
structure of the proteins. In addition chemical modification,
peptide synthesis, and oligonucleotide directed site-specific
mutagenesis are used in conjunction with a wide variety
of monoclonal antibodies to assess the role of specific
amino acids in the antigenic activity of the proteins.
All of these studies involve the isolation of the
viral proteins by various physical and chemical techniques
and the development of suitable peptide mapping and
sequencing methods. Routine use is made of techniques
such as fluorescent amino acid liquid chromatography
in order to obtain information from nanomole amounts
of proteins.
Publications
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