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Dr. Song Lee has recently been awarded a 5 year NSERC Discovery Grant for his study of 鈥�Functional Analysis of Thiol-Diulfide Oxidoreductases in Steptococcus gordonii鈥�.

This funding will support Dr. Lee鈥檚 long-term goal of understanding how disulfide bonds are formed in Gram-positive bacteria. Disufide bonds are stable bonds formed between two molecules of the amino acid cysteine. They are important because they allow a protein chain to fold into a complex three-dimensional shape. In proteins, form equals function - the shape of a protein is key to enabling it to carry out its work, such as building and secreting toxins, sticking to other cells to form a biofilm, or taking up DNA from its environment.

Although the ways in which disulfide bonds form in the other major group of bacteria (Gram-negative) is well known, such is not the case with Gram-positive bacteria. Dr. Lee鈥檚 research team has identified a protein they suspect is involved in disulfide bond formation in the Gram-positive dental plaque bacterium Streptococcus gordonii. With this new research funding they will further investigate this protein and its role.