109 research outputs found
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Covalent Labeling-Mass Spectrometry for Characterizing Protein-Ligand Complexes
This dissertation focuses on applying covalent labeling (CL) and mass spectrometry (MS) for characterizing protein-ligand complexes. Understanding protein-ligand interactions has both fundamental and applied significance. Covalent labeling is a protein surface modification technique that selectively modifies solvent-exposed amino acid side chains of proteins. A covalent bond is formed between the functional groups of labeling reagent and protein’s side chain. One of the key factors that affects CL reactivity is a side chain’s solvent accessibility. Ligand binding protects residues on the protein surface from being labeled, and residues involved in ligand binding can be indicated via decreases in labeling extents.
The main goal of this study is to develop strategies that apply CL-MS to characterize protein-ligand complexes. Diethyl pyrocarbonate (DEPC) is the labeling reagent we focused on. First, we developed a strategy that can identify ligand binding site as well as determine the ligand binding affinity to the protein. We characterized the complexes between β-2 microglobulin (β2m) and three amyloid inhibiting molecules under Cu(II)-induced amyloid forming conditions. The rest of the dissertation focused on comparing the information from two complementary MS-based methods, hydrogen deuterium exchange (HDX)-MS and CL-MS. Using three model protein-ligand systems, we demonstrate that the two labeling techniques can provide synergistic structural information about protein-ligand binding when reagents like DEPC are used for CL because of the differences in the intrinsic reaction rates of DEPC-based CL and HDX.
This dissertation highlights the power of CL-MS for characterizing protein-ligand complexes. The understanding of how three amyloid inhibiting molecules bind to Cu(II)-β2M could facilitate future library screening for new drug candidates. Our work also indicates CL-MS is capable of characterizing protein-ligand complexes that are difficult to study by other methods such as X-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
RoboCoDraw: Robotic Avatar Drawing with GAN-based Style Transfer and Time-efficient Path Optimization
Robotic drawing has become increasingly popular as an entertainment and
interactive tool. In this paper we present RoboCoDraw, a real-time
collaborative robot-based drawing system that draws stylized human face
sketches interactively in front of human users, by using the Generative
Adversarial Network (GAN)-based style transfer and a Random-Key Genetic
Algorithm (RKGA)-based path optimization. The proposed RoboCoDraw system takes
a real human face image as input, converts it to a stylized avatar, then draws
it with a robotic arm. A core component in this system is the Avatar-GAN
proposed by us, which generates a cartoon avatar face image from a real human
face. AvatarGAN is trained with unpaired face and avatar images only and can
generate avatar images of much better likeness with human face images in
comparison with the vanilla CycleGAN. After the avatar image is generated, it
is fed to a line extraction algorithm and converted to sketches. An RKGA-based
path optimization algorithm is applied to find a time-efficient robotic drawing
path to be executed by the robotic arm. We demonstrate the capability of
RoboCoDraw on various face images using a lightweight, safe collaborative robot
UR5.Comment: Accepted by AAAI202
Auggie: Encouraging Effortful Communication through Handcrafted Digital Experiences
Digital communication is often brisk and automated. From auto-completed
messages to "likes," research has shown that such lightweight interactions can
affect perceptions of authenticity and closeness. On the other hand, effort in
relationships can forge emotional bonds by conveying a sense of caring and is
essential in building and maintaining relationships. To explore effortful
communication, we designed and evaluated Auggie, an iOS app that encourages
partners to create digitally handcrafted Augmented Reality (AR) experiences for
each other. Auggie is centered around crafting a 3D character with photos,
animated movements, drawings, and audio for someone else. We conducted a
two-week-long field study with 30 participants (15 pairs), who used Auggie with
their partners remotely. Our qualitative findings show that Auggie participants
engaged in meaningful effort through the handcrafting process, and felt closer
to their partners, although the tool may not be appropriate in all situations.
We discuss design implications and future directions for systems that encourage
effortful communication.Comment: To appear at the 25th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported
Cooperative Work And Social Computing (CSCW '22). 25 page
H2O+: An Improved Framework for Hybrid Offline-and-Online RL with Dynamics Gaps
Solving real-world complex tasks using reinforcement learning (RL) without
high-fidelity simulation environments or large amounts of offline data can be
quite challenging. Online RL agents trained in imperfect simulation
environments can suffer from severe sim-to-real issues. Offline RL approaches
although bypass the need for simulators, often pose demanding requirements on
the size and quality of the offline datasets. The recently emerged hybrid
offline-and-online RL provides an attractive framework that enables joint use
of limited offline data and imperfect simulator for transferable policy
learning. In this paper, we develop a new algorithm, called H2O+, which offers
great flexibility to bridge various choices of offline and online learning
methods, while also accounting for dynamics gaps between the real and
simulation environment. Through extensive simulation and real-world robotics
experiments, we demonstrate superior performance and flexibility over advanced
cross-domain online and offline RL algorithms
DrM: Mastering Visual Reinforcement Learning through Dormant Ratio Minimization
Visual reinforcement learning (RL) has shown promise in continuous control
tasks. Despite its progress, current algorithms are still unsatisfactory in
virtually every aspect of the performance such as sample efficiency, asymptotic
performance, and their robustness to the choice of random seeds. In this paper,
we identify a major shortcoming in existing visual RL methods that is the
agents often exhibit sustained inactivity during early training, thereby
limiting their ability to explore effectively. Expanding upon this crucial
observation, we additionally unveil a significant correlation between the
agents' inclination towards motorically inactive exploration and the absence of
neuronal activity within their policy networks. To quantify this inactivity, we
adopt dormant ratio as a metric to measure inactivity in the RL agent's
network. Empirically, we also recognize that the dormant ratio can act as a
standalone indicator of an agent's activity level, regardless of the received
reward signals. Leveraging the aforementioned insights, we introduce DrM, a
method that uses three core mechanisms to guide agents'
exploration-exploitation trade-offs by actively minimizing the dormant ratio.
Experiments demonstrate that DrM achieves significant improvements in sample
efficiency and asymptotic performance with no broken seeds (76 seeds in total)
across three continuous control benchmark environments, including DeepMind
Control Suite, MetaWorld, and Adroit. Most importantly, DrM is the first
model-free algorithm that consistently solves tasks in both the Dog and
Manipulator domains from the DeepMind Control Suite as well as three dexterous
hand manipulation tasks without demonstrations in Adroit, all based on pixel
observations
Highly branched poly(β-amino ester) delivery of minicircle DNA for transfection of neurodegenerative disease related cells
Current therapies for most neurodegenerative disorders are only symptomatic in nature and do not change the course of the disease. Gene therapy plays an important role in disease modifying therapeutic strategies. Herein, we have designed and optimized a series of highly branched poly(β-amino ester)s (HPAEs) containing biodegradable disulfide units in the HPAE backbone (HPAESS) and guanidine moieties (HPAESG) at the extremities. The optimized polymers are used to deliver minicircle DNA to multipotent adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) and astrocytes, and high transfection efficiency is achieved (77% in human ADSCs and 52% in primary astrocytes) whilst preserving over 90% cell viability. Furthermore, the top-performing candidate mediates high levels of nerve growth factor (NGF) secretion from astrocytes, causing neurite outgrowth from a model neuron cell line. This synergistic gene delivery system provides a viable method for highly efficient non-viral transfection of ADSCs and astrocytes
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