Josh Mackaluso

About Josh: Josh is a first-year sophomore at Michigan State University. He plans on majoring in biochemistry and continuing research throughout his undergraduate program. He is working with Dr. Maria Zavodszky as part of Michigan State's Professorial Assistantship Program.
Research Topics: Josh is currently doing research on the flexibility and conformational changes that occur when ligands bind to proteins. One way he is attempting to do this is by locating hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic tethers with a program called FIRST. The location of these bonds and tethers allows for prediction of rigid and flexible regions within a protein. The changes in the network of hydrogen bonds and hydrophobic tethers gives clues as to how the protein changes shape when other molecules bind to it and what are the residues involved in this process.