Ruth Nussinov
Bioinformatician / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ruth Nussinov (Hebrew: פרופסורית רותי נוסינוב) is an Israeli-American biologist born in Rehovot who works as a professor in the Department of Human Genetics, School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and is the senior principal scientist and principal investigator at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health.[1] Nussinov is also the editor in chief of the Current Opinion in Structural Biology and formerly of the journal PLOS Computational Biology.[2][3]
Ruth Nussinov | |
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Alma mater | University of Washington, Rutgers University |
Known for | Nucleic acid structure prediction, PLoS Computational Biology, Nussinov plots, Equilibrium unfolding, Protein–protein interaction prediction, Dynamic conformations determine protein function and cell phenotype, Conformational selection and population shift, Dynamic allostery, Current Opinion in Structural Biology |
Awards |
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Scientific career | |
Fields | Bioinformatics, Computational structural biology, Biophysics |
Institutions | Weizmann Institute, Berkeley, Harvard, Tel Aviv University, NCI |
Thesis | Secondary structure analysis of nucleic acids (1977) |
Website | http://ccr.cancer.gov/staff/staff.asp?profileid=6892 |
In 1978, Nussinov proposed the first dynamic programming approach for nucleic acid secondary structure prediction, this method is now known as the Nussinov algorithm.[4][5]
In the 1990s, she pioneered the concept of dynamic conformational ensembles with distinct conformational states indicators of protein and cell function, and of allosteric drugs actions.[6][7][8][9] She offered that the ability to perform biological function is determined by how stable, or populated, a protein is in its active (ON) conformation. She proposed that free energy landscapes are dynamic, offered that all conformations pre-exist and suggested “conformational selection and population shift” (as an alternative to the “induced fit” text-book model) to explain molecular mechanism of recognition and posited that population shift underlies allosteric regulation.[9] The concept of dynamic energy landscape that she introduced tacitly explains that strong activating mutations in cancer work by shifting the ensemble to spend more time in the active state. In 2000, she extended this pre-existing ensemble model to catalysis, and more recently to oncogenic transformation, contributing to extraordinary advancements in understanding structure and function.[10]
Nussinov has authored about 750 scientific papers with more than 51,000 citations as of 2023 and has given hundreds of invited talks.[11][12] Most recently, she has pioneered the connection, on the structural and cellular levels, of cancer and neurodevelopmental disorders asking How can same-gene mutations promote both cancer and developmental disorders?.[13]
A personal scientific overview of her biography has been published in 2018 as “Autobiography of Ruth Nussinov”.[14]