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Faculty Detail     Name JUN TSAO   Campus Address CBSE 110 Zip 4400 Phone 205-975-7527 E-mail juntsao@uab.edu Other websites

Faculty Appointment(s) Appointment Type Department Division Rank Primary  Microbiology  Microbiology Assistant Professor

Biographical Sketch  Jun Tsao, Assistant Professor of Microbiology, received her Bachelor’s Degree in Medical Technology from Nanjing Medical University (Nanjing, China) in 1982. She completed another undergraduate degree in Health Sciences and Pharmacology at Purdue University (1984). In 1990, she obtained her Ph.D. from Purdue University in the Department of Biological Sciences under the direction of Dr. Michael Rossmann. Her graduate research involved the study of ab initio phase determination for viruses with high symmetry, as well as solving the three-dimensional atomic structure of Canine Parvovirus. Dr. Tsao completed her postdoctoral studies with both Dr. Michael Rossmann at Purdue University and Dr. Charles Bugg at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, in the area of X-ray crystallographic studies of viral proteins and their functional implications. She joined the UAB Microbiology faculty in 1993.

Research/Clinical Interest Title Structure-based approaches to anti-infectious agents Description Dr. Jun Tsao’s main research interest is X-ray crystallographic analysis of various proteins that are implicated in biological functions in infectious diseases. With thorough understanding of the structure and function relationships of these proteins, design of novel drugs based on the protein structure can be accomplished. Dr. Jun Tsao’s on-going projects are structural studies of vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), including design of strategies to produce viral proteins for crystallization and structural studies, and studies of inserting foreign genes into the VSV genome to enhance the oncolytic activity of VSV and its specificity for tumor cells. Dr. Jun Tsao is also a member of the drug discovery team working on development of novel inhibitors of influenza viruses.

Selected Publications  Publication PUBMEDID Peng Ge, Jun Tsao, Stan Schein, Todd J. Green, Ming Luo, Z. Hong Zhou. Cryo-EM Model of the Bullet-Shaped Vesicular Stomatitis Virus. Science 2010, 327(5966), 689-693.    Tsao, J., Chapman, M.S., Agbandje, M., Keller, W., Smith, K., Wu, H., Luo, M., Smith, T.J., Rossmann, M.G., Compans, R.W., and Parrish, C.R. 1991. The three-dimensional structure of canine parvovirus and its functional implications. Science ++251:1456-1464.

Keywords X-ray crystallography, Virus structures, antiviral drugs

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