Benjamin Bobay

I'm currently a Senior Research Associate at the Duke Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Center (DMRSC) and have over 20 years of experience in the characterization of protein structures and protein:small ligand interactions. The DMRSC provides access to high field NMR instrumentation, training in the use of NMR methods, and expert consultation on advanced NMR applications. The Center serves as a research resource and shared instrument facility for research programs at Duke and in the Southeastern region. My efforts are dedicated to the Chemistry Department and the maintenance, operation, training, etc. of the FFSC NMR facility as well as my own research interests. My interests lie with utilizing NMR, computational docking, and molecular dynamics simulations for characterization of bio-molecules and their interactions.

I am currently involved with one major research effort. I have an ongoing project with a multi-PI RO1 team aimed at developing anti-fungal inhibitors. We have made significant advances towards the goal of developing a fungal specific, non-immunosuppressive calcineurin inhibitors and have published five peer reviewed journal articles over the past few years.

My research interest focus on the determining structure to function activities of biomolecules (protein, DNA, RNA, carbohydrates, polymers, etc.) with ligands. Primarily my research is aimed at determining the structure, dynamics and function of important proteins and protein complexes using high-resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. My early work solely centered around the use of NMR experiments to characterize protein structures. Throughout my career I have continued my efforts in NMR and have added computational modeling, docking, and dynamic simulations with a heavy reliance on statistical analysis of those results. This unique combination has led to many peer reviewed manuscripts with significant results.