Lifan Shih
NMR experiments have presented evidence consistent with a specific and non specific interaction between myoglobin and fatty acid. Specific interaction occurs in the structural region near heme 8 methyl, and nonspecific interaction can be observed from the increase of methylene peak in the presence of myoglobin, and the increase of solubility can also be detected from 13C labeled C1 carbon. We propose that the form of fatty acids is changed when fatty acid interacts with myoglobin such as binding, which suggests a new role for myoglobin in physiology. We also found the interaction between myoglobin and fatty acid depends on the oxygenated state of myoglobin, therefore it is possible a part of the regulatory mechanism for the utilization of fatty acid when oxygen is available.
Lifan Shih is a Ph.D candidate in the department of biomedical engineering. He works with Dr. Thomas Jue who has used advanced NMR technology to challenge the well established idea that myglobin is an oxygen transporter.
Journal of Computer Science & Systems Biology received 2279 citations as per Google Scholar report