Shanice Fluornoy

Shanice is currently a student at Virgina State University working towards a degree in chemistry. She worked with Professor George Stan and his graduate student Abdolreza Javidialesaadi to develop computational models of biological nanomachines that mediate protein degradation.

Shanice investigated mechanisms of bacterial caseinolytic protease (Clp) which help maintain cell viability through removal of defective of abnormal proteins. These ring-shaped nanomachines undergo cyclical ATP-driven conformational changes to unfold and translocate substrate proteins (SPs) through their narrow central pore. We performed Langevin dynamics simulations of an implicit solvent model of ClpY and SPs consisting of tandem constructs with 1, 2, or 4 titin I27 domains. We contrasted the SP behavior in a setup that mimics laser optical tweezer experiments, in which the N-terminal is restrained along the direction of the ClpY pore axis, and in an in-vivo like setup, in which the N-terminal is unrestrained. Our results indicate that ClpY utilize direction-dependent pulling mechanisms to remodel their substrates.She worked with Professor George Stan developing computational modeling of biological nanomachines

Here is a video of Shanice explaining her experience at the REU program