Biology

Stephen Harvey, Professor and Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Structural Biology

Ph.D., Biophysics, Dartmouth College, 1971

Phone: 404-385-4498
Fax: (404) 894-0519
Office: (Cherry Emerson) 315
Lab: (Cherry Emerson) 324

Mona Hud , Assistant to Stephen Harvey

Phone: 404-385-4499
Fax: 404-894-0519
Office: (Cherry Emerson) 319

Research Interests

Professor Harvey’s research group is interested in macromolecular structure and dynamics and the relationship of these to biological function.

Structure-function relationships in the ribosome: The structures of the ribosomal large and small subunits have recently been determined by x-ray crystallography. Cryo-electron microscopic studies of complexes of mRNA, tRNA, and various cofactors have captured the ribosome at several points in the translational cycle, but only at low resolution. Dr. Harvey and collaborators are combining the data from these and other experiments into detailed models with the aim of determining the structural, thermodynamic, and kinetic basis of translational initiation, fidelity, elongation and termination. He is also interested in the evolution of ribosome structure, and in ribosome assembly.

Lipoproteins and atherosclerosis: The group is collaborating with several experimentalists to incorporate all available information into detailed atomic models for high and low density lipoproteins (HDLs and LDLs), in an effort to understand structure-function relationships in these particles.

Viral assembly:  Understanding the mechanisms whereby viruses package their nucleic acids should offer new opportunities for drug design. We have two major efforts underway in this area. First, we are developing models for investigating structural and thermodynamic issues related to the packaging of double-helical DNA into bacteriophage capsids. Second, we are investigating the interplay between RNA secondary structure and RNA-protein binding in the assembly of small RNA nodaviruses. The models of both DNA viruses and RNA viruses are based on available data from x-ray diffraction and cryo-electron microscopy, and they are being evaluated against results from a variety of other kinds of experiments.

Selected Publications

P.E. Richardson, M. Manchekar, N. Dashti, M.K. Jones, A. Beigneux, S.G. Young, S.C. Harvey and J.P. Segrest, “Assembly of Lipoprotein Particles Containing Apolipoprotein-B: Structural Model for the Nascent Lipoprotein Particle,” Biophys. J. 88, 2789-2800 (2005).

S.M. Stagg and S.C. Harvey, “Exploring the Flexibility of Ribosome Recycling Factor Using Molecular Dynamics,” Biophys. J. 89, 2659-2666 (2005).

J.A. Mears, M.R. Sharma, R.R. Gutell, A.S. McCook, P.E. Richardson, T.R. Caulfield, R.K. Agrawal and S.C. Harvey, “A Structural Model of the Mitochondrial Ribosome,” J. Mol. Biol. 358, 193-212 (2006).

R. K.-Z. Tan, A.S. Petrov and S.C. Harvey, “YUP: A Molecular Simulation Program for Coarse-Grained and Multi-Scaled Models,” J. Chem. Theory and Comput. 2, 529-540 (2006).

C.R. Locker and S.C. Harvey, “A Model for Viral Genome Packing,” Multiscale Modeling Simul. 5, 1264-1279 (2006).

A.S. Petrov and S.C. Harvey, “The Structural and Thermodynamic Basis of DNA Packaging in Bacteriophage,” Structure 15, 21-27 (2007).