Stefan Sarafianos
Assistant Professor of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology
Joint Assistant Professor of Biochemistry
E-mail:sarafianoss@missouri.edu
Office: 471D Bond Life Sciences Center
Mail: Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center
471D Bond Life Sciences Center
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
Phone: 573-882-4338
Fax: 573-884-9676
Lab: 573-882-9357
Lab site: http://sarafianoslab.missouri.edu/
Educational background
| Degree | School | Location | Major |
| PhD | Georgetown University | Washington, D.C. | Biochemistry |
| BS | University of Patras | Patras, Greece | Chemistry |
Research description
We work towards unraveling the molecular details of how biomedically-relevant enzymes function, how they are inhibited, how they develop drug resistance and towards developing drugs that will treat human disease. In pursuit of these goals we use a combination of conventional and cutting-edge research tools, including protein biochemistry, molecular biology, macromolecular engineering, molecular modeling, X-ray crystallography, enzymology, and high-throughput technologies. Target proteins include HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, SARS RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, SARS 3cl protease, Hepatitis C virus replicase, Hepatitis B reverse transcriptase, and bacterial RNA polymerases.
Selected publications
Structural basis of HIV-1 resistance to AZT by excision. Tu X, Das K, Han Q, Bauman JD, Clark AD Jr, Hou X, Frenkel YV, Gaffney BL, Jones RA, Boyer PL, Hughes SH, Sarafianos SG, Arnold E. Nat Struct Mol Biol. 2010 Oct;17(10):1202-9
The N348I mutation at the connection subdomain of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase decreases binding to nevirapine. Schuckmann MM, Marchand B, Hachiya A, Kodama EN, Kirby KA, Singh K, Sarafianos SG. J Biol Chem. 2010 Sep 27. [Epub ahead of print]
Structural Aspects of Drug Resistance and Inhibition of HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase. Singh K, Marchand B, Kirby KA, Michailidis E, Sarafianos SG. Viruses. 2010 Feb 11;2(2):606-638.
Mechanism of inhibition of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase by 4'-Ethynyl-2-fluoro-2'-deoxyadenosine triphosphate, a translocation-defective reverse transcriptase inhibitor. Michailidis E, Marchand B, Kodama EN, Singh K, Matsuoka M, Kirby KA, Ryan EM, Sawani AM, Nagy E, Ashida N, Mitsuya H, Parniak MA, Sarafianos SG. J Biol Chem. 2009 Dec 18;284(51):35681-91. Epub.
Structure and function of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase: molecular mechanisms of polymerization and inhibition. Sarafianos SG, Marchand B, Das K, Himmel DM, Parniak MA, Hughes SH, Arnold E. J Mol Biol. 2009 Jan 23;385(3):693-713.
RT slides home... Sarafianos SG, Arnold E. Science. 2008 Nov 14;322(5904):1059-60.
The RNA polymerase "switch region" is a target for inhibitors. Mukhopadhyay J, Das K, Ismail S, Koppstein D, Jang M, Hudson B, Sarafianos S, Tuske S, Patel J, Jansen R, Irschik H, Arnold E, Ebright RH. Cell. 2008 Oct 17;135(2):295-307.
Molecular biology: an HIV secret uncovered. Arnold E, Sarafianos SG. Nature. 2008 May 8;453(7192):169-70.