Associate Professor Craig Marshall

Research

Our major goal in this work is to improve our understanding of the structural and functional adaptations of the enzymes that fit them for function in Antarctic fish and how these adaptations compare with those of related fish from more temperate waters. In the long-term we plan to examine a number of proteins so that we can produce a general picture of how low temperature affects protein structure and function. This work will also deepen our understanding of the mechanisms by which ligands interact with enzymes and will improve our knowledge of how proteins fold.

In addition to the general question of how proteins fold to allow activity at low temperatures, we are interested in the specific question of the nature of the structure of antifreeze glycopeptides. We wish to answer this question by growing crystals of these proteins and solving the structure by X-ray crystallography.