Alan N. Engelman, Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Affiliated Faculty, Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School
Email: alan_engelman@dfci.harvard.edu
Under the mentorship of Dr. Naomi Rosenberg at the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Alan for his Ph.D. studied the relationship between Abelson murine leukemia virus protein tyrosine kinase activity and pre-B cell transformation. For his postdoc, Alan studied HIV-1 integrase at the NIH with Drs. Robert Craigie and Kiyoshi Mizuuchi, where he determined that: (1) integrase cleaves and joins DNA via one-step transesterification reactions, (2) a protease resistant core domain of integrase, called the catalytic core domain (CCD), harbors an invariant D,D-35-E motif that comprises the enzyme active site, and (3) integrase functions as a multimer, with the N-terminal domain of one integrase molecule working in trans with the CCD of a separate integrase protomer within the multimer. Alan has continued to focus on HIV integration since starting his DFCI/HMS laboratory, expanding his approaches to include structural biology and genome-wide mapping of integration sites within cellular chromatin. Such efforts have yielded novel X-ray crystal, NMR, and single-particle cryo-EM structures, elucidated the roles of virus-host interactions in HIV-1 trafficking and integration targeting mechanisms, and shed light on the mechanisms of action of clinical integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) and preclinical allosteric integrase inhibitors (ALLINIs). Outside of lab, Alan enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, hiking, and playing the banjo.
Photo credit: Bryce Vickmark, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Center for Virology and Vaccine Research, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Affiliated Faculty, Department of Microbiology, Harvard Medical School
Email: alan_engelman@dfci.harvard.edu
Under the mentorship of Dr. Naomi Rosenberg at the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Alan for his Ph.D. studied the relationship between Abelson murine leukemia virus protein tyrosine kinase activity and pre-B cell transformation. For his postdoc, Alan studied HIV-1 integrase at the NIH with Drs. Robert Craigie and Kiyoshi Mizuuchi, where he determined that: (1) integrase cleaves and joins DNA via one-step transesterification reactions, (2) a protease resistant core domain of integrase, called the catalytic core domain (CCD), harbors an invariant D,D-35-E motif that comprises the enzyme active site, and (3) integrase functions as a multimer, with the N-terminal domain of one integrase molecule working in trans with the CCD of a separate integrase protomer within the multimer. Alan has continued to focus on HIV integration since starting his DFCI/HMS laboratory, expanding his approaches to include structural biology and genome-wide mapping of integration sites within cellular chromatin. Such efforts have yielded novel X-ray crystal, NMR, and single-particle cryo-EM structures, elucidated the roles of virus-host interactions in HIV-1 trafficking and integration targeting mechanisms, and shed light on the mechanisms of action of clinical integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) and preclinical allosteric integrase inhibitors (ALLINIs). Outside of lab, Alan enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, hiking, and playing the banjo.
Photo credit: Bryce Vickmark, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.