DEPARTMENT OF VISION SCIENCES
Craig Daniel Smith, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor, Vision Sciences
Contact Information:
Office - (205) 934-7233
Physical Address:
106 Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering
1025 18th Street South
Mailing Address:
CBSE 106
1530 Third Avenue South
Birmingham, AL 35294-4400
Biographical Sketch:
Education:
Ph.D. - University of Alabama at Birmingham
M.S. - Roosevelt University
B.S. - Florida Atlantic University
Administrative Responsibilities:
Manager, UAB Cancer Center Core Facility X-ray Diffraction Laboratory
Project Coordinator, Southeast Regional Collaborative Access Team (SER-CAT), Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory
Secondary Appointments:
Graduate Faculty - UAB Dept. Chemistry
Personal:
Hobbies - Sailing, soccer, hiking.
Member US Coast Guard Auxiliary.
Scholarly Activity:
Teaching:
BMG 753 - Practice and theory of techniques used to determine the three-dimensional structures of macromolecules using X-ray crystallography.
Research:
X-ray crystallographic studies of RXRα-ligand complexes are being used to understand structural interactions between this nuclear receptor and various retinoid analogues, and learn more about the structural mechanisms of transcriptional control. Details of these interactions are helping to design new chemopreventive cancer drugs.
The carboxyl transferase (CT) domain of acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase, and N-myristoyl transferase (NMT) are therapeutic targets for diverse diseases such as Candida albicans, obesity, cancer, and agricultural crop fungal diseases. X-ray crystallographic methods are being used to determine the structures of these proteins in complex with inhibitory drugs in order to guide development of products with enhanced characteristics.
Nicotinate mononucleotide adenylyl-tranferase (NaMNAT) is a bacterial enzyme central to NAD synthesis which is found to be essential for survival of bacteria. Crystallographic structural studies of NaMNAT in complex with designed inhibitors are in progress to find potential new antibiotics for certain pathogens.