Research Lab Members Publications Teaching Apoptosis Plasmids Protocols Jobs Links
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Mailing Address:
Dr. A. Clay Clark
Associate Professor
128 Polk Hall, CB 7622
Department of Molecular
& Structural Biochemistry
NC State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7622
Send Email: Clay Clark
Lab: Rooms 339 & 341 Polk Hall
Office: Room 339A Polk Hall
919-515-5805 (office)
919-515-5806 (lab)
919-515-2047 (fax)
Overview:
Protein Folding, Assembly, Maturation of Caspases
Research in my lab focuses on the broad topics of protein folding and
the role of amino acid sequence identity in determining folding pathways
of homologous proteins. 
Our main project is the folding and assembly of procaspases, using procaspase-3 and procaspase-1 as representative members of the caspase family. In these studies, we use a number of biochemical, biophysical, and molecular biological tools to measure the conformational stability, folding kinetics, and structures of the wild-type proteins as well as numerous mutants. The overall goal of this work is to determine how the homodimers assemble and fold to the native conformation.
Caspases are integral proteases in prgrammed cell death (apoptosis), and the dysregulation of apoptosis is observed in a number of human diseases, from autoimmune diseases (rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, for example), to neurodegenerative diseases, to cancer. Learning to manipulate the levels of caspase activity in the cell could affect our understanding of many human diseases.
A detailed description of our research projects can be found by following the Research link above.
Dr. Clark also is a faculty member of the Biotechnology program and of the Genomic Sciences program.