Kam Y. J. Zhang

Prebiotic cationic amino acids support formation of an ancient protein fold

This study investigates whether prebiotic cationic amino acids like ornithine and diamino butyric acid can support the formation of an ancient protein fold, finding that they can adopt a foldable structure under specific conditions.

CACHE Challenge #1: targeting the WDR domain of LRRK2, a Parkinson's Disease associated protein.

The paper evaluates computational hit-finding methods for targeting the WDR domain of LRRK2, a Parkinson's disease protein, finding that diverse strategies yielded weakly potent compounds.

A novel consensus-based computational pipeline for rapid screening of antibody therapeutics for efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern including omicron variant

This paper introduces a computational pipeline to predict binding affinity of SARS-CoV-2 variants to hACE2 and neutralizing antibodies, showing Omicron variants have reduced binding to most RBD-directed antibodies.

A novel structure-based approach for identification of vertebrate susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2: implications for future surveillance programmes

This study predicts SARS-CoV-2 spike protein binding affinity to ACE2 orthologs across 299 vertebrate species, revealing broad host range and potential for cross-species transmission.

Neuroprotective derivatives of tacrine that target NMDA receptor and acetyl cholinesterase - Design, synthesis and biological evaluation

The paper designs, synthesizes, and evaluates neuroprotective derivatives of tacrine that target both acetylcholinesterase and NMDA receptors, showing reduced hepatotoxicity and potential therapeutic benefits.