My n
ame is Ardian Soca Wibowo, however I prefer to be called by my middle name, Soca. Currently, I am a Research Scientist in the Dann group. In this position, I have combined responsibilities as the Facility Manager of the Macromolecular Crystallography Facility (MCF) in addition to continuing aspects of research on the human folate receptors in the Dann laboratory. The MCF provides all the necessary equipment to facilitate research in all aspects of crystallography and structural biology at IUB. The new Crystallization Automation Facility (CAF) allows high throughput protein crystallography by the use of advanced robotics from Rigaku. The home source R-Axis IV++ X-Ray generator affords the ability for diffraction screening and data collection. Lastly, computational resources facilitate structure determination and refinement with the latest programs available. As the Facility Manager, I hope to teach and encourage researchers in their endeavors in structural biology. The MCF provides a great centralized resource to grant access to structural biology projects for all IUB researchers.
A little background about myself – I am originally from Indonesia, but have been in the states since I was 6 years old. My family now resides in Indiana, PA, near Pittsburgh. I obtained my undergraduate degree at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, graduating in Spring of 2005 with a Bachelors in Biochemistry. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry at Indiana University in December 2011. My thesis involved the structure determination of the cell surface folate receptors that are upregulated in many cancers and also inflammatory diseases. The folate receptor structures in complex with various ligands provide molecular details as to how the natural folate metabolites as well as commercial drugs in clinical use for cancer and autoimmune disease are bound within the receptor. We hope to better understand the specificity and binding affinity of various ligands to the receptor. Our findings may facilitate rational drug design strategies for cancer and inflammatory therapeutics based on structural information rather than strictly on empirical principles.
P.S. I’m a Ninja. Also, Soca – my middle name – means Danger. No lies.
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