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Dr. J.A. Tuszynski


Allard Chair & Professor of Oncology

Experimental Oncology

3336 Cross Cancer Institute

11560 University Avenue

Edmonton, Alberta T6G1Z2

Phone: 780-432-8906

Fax: 780-432-8892

Email : jtus@phys.ualberta.ca



Current Appointments

Allard Chair

Experimental Oncology, Cross Cancer Institute

Professor

Department of Oncology, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry,

University of Alberta



Education and Training

1983

Ph.D.

Physics, University of Calgary

Specialization: Theory of EPR spectroscopy

1980

M.Sc.

Physics, The A. Mickiewicz University of Poznan, Poland

Specialization: Theory of magnetic phase transitions



Overview and Research Program


As the Allard Research Chair in Oncology, Jack Tuszynski heads a team focused on building “designer drugs” able to kill tumours and eventually lead to cancer cures.

The hope is that tangible effects are not that far away since a state-of-the-art supercomputer cluster dedicated to the task of in silico drug screening will soon be housed at the Cross Cancer Institute. This is made possible due to a donation from the Allard Foundation and grant support from the Alberta Cancer Foundation and Alberta’s Advanced Education and Technology.

This type of computational work could save years of research time in the lab, millions of dollars and would take the guesswork out of finding the proper drugs to treat cancer. Simply put, the goal of the computational biophysics group is to create the best possible drugs that would target cancerous cells while reducing side-effects to the healthy cells.

For example, together with researchers from Texas, Dr. Tuszynski’s group has already developed a new generation of chemotherapy drugs which are derivatives of colchicine and taxol, two important classes of molecules that interact with the key structural protein, tubulin, which is instrumental in cell division. These compounds inhibit tubulin’s function and eventually slow or stop the spread of cancer. But since both standard colchicine and taxol drugs currently stop cell division in both healthy and cancerous cells, the new derivatives of these drugs designed by the Tuszynski group will mainly affect cancerous cells.

To achieve success in this new, but promising field of biological modelling, Dr.Tuszynski draws on his physics background to help create computer software programs that catalogue and scan all proteins against all available drug compounds to find the perfect match. This is based on the principle of fitting like a lock and key. Once you find that match, you can move on to determining some practical aspects like the actual amount and frequency of dosage, drug formulation or the best way of administering it. But before that point, you need what we call rational drug design. Otherwise the way of trying to figure out the best drugs would be called irrational, serendipity or an educated guess at best.

Dr. Tuszynski hopes that within a few years his research group will be capable of running the complete drug discovery cycle—starting at the computational modelling stage through to cell cytotoxicity assays and eventually clinical trials. Collaborating with top researchers at the Cross Cancer Institute and in Texas, France and China will help speed that goal along.

External Link Arrow Read more about Dr. Tuszynski's research in our Research Stories section


Recent Publications (2000-present)

V. Rezania and J.A. Tuszynski, "Modeling polymerization of microtubules: A semi-classical nonlinear field theory approach" Physica A (accepted June 18, 2008).


J. Torin Huzil, John. K. Chik, Gordon W. Slysz, Holly Freedman, Jack Tuszynski, Richard E. Taylor, Dan L. Sackett, David C. Schriemer, Discovery of the peloruside binding site on microtubules and a unique mechanism of microtubule stabilization, Journal of Molecular Biology, (accepted March 11, 2008).


Janka Mátrai, Eddy Joris, Abel Jonckhere, Gert Verheyden, Peter Krüger, Eric Carpenter, Jack A. Tuszynski, Marc De Maeyer, and Yves Engelborghs, Exploration of the activation pathways of the WT and mutant Rat-a-Chymotrypsin with Molecular Dynamics simulation and comparison with experiment, European Journal of Biophysics (accepted June 4, 2008).


C.J. Foley, H. Freedman, S.L. Choo, C. Onyskiw, N.Y. Fu, V.C. Yu, J.A. Tuszynski, J.L. Pratt and S. Baksh, Dynamics of RASSF1A/MOAP-1 Association with Death Receptors, Molecular Cell Biology (accepted, May 1, 2008)


M.V. Sataric, L. Budinski-Petkovic, I. Loncarevic and J.A. Tuszynski, Intrinsic Electric Fields as a Possible Control Mechanism of Bidirectional Microtubule-Based Transport, Cell Biophysics and Biochemistry (accepted with minor corrections, April 1 2008).


Vahid Rezania, Olga Azarenko, Mary Ann Jordan , Hannes Bolterauer, Richard F. Ludueña , J. Torin Huzil and Jack A. Tuszynski, Microtubule Assembly of Isotypically Purified Tubulin and Its Mixtures, Biophysical Journal (accepted April 22, 2008).


J.Y. Mane, M. Klobukowski, J.A. Tuszynski and J.T. Huzil, Free energy calculations on binding of colchicine and its derivatives with the a,b-tubulin isotypes Journal of Chemical Information and Modeling (accepted with minor corrections, March 21, 2008)


J.A. Tuszynski, J.M. Dixon and P. Chelminiak, Surface conductance in seamless microtubules, Physica A 387 no.16-17 pp 4183-4194.


Nouri, C., R. Luppes, A.E.P. Veldman, J.A. Tuszynski & R. Gordon (2008). Rayleigh instability of the inverted one-cell amphibian embryo [Invited: "Physical Aspects of Developmental Biology" special issue, Guest Editor Shane Hutson, Vanderbilt University]. Physical Biology, 5 (2008) 015006 (12 pages)


Melissa Gajewski, Jack Tuszynski, Hirotoshi Mori, Eisaku Miyoshi and Mariusz Klobukowski, DFT studies of the electronic structure and geometry of 18-crown-6, hexaaza[18]annulene, and their complexes with cations of the heavier alkali and alkaline earth metals, Inorganica Chimica Acta, 361 (2008) 2166-2171.


J. A. Tuszynski, T. J. A. Craddock and E. J. Carpenter, Bioferroelectricity at the Nanoscale, Journal of Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience (accepted October 9, 2007).


A. Samarbakhsh and J.A. Tuszynski, A “Shooting Bead” Method for Finding the Cantilever Stiffness and Flexural Rigidity of Semiflexible Rodlike Biological Filaments, Journal of Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience (accepted October 9, 2007).


Holly Freedman, Ly Le, Jack A. Tuszynski, and Thanh N. Truong, Improving the Performance of the Coupled Reference Interaction Site Model-Hyper-netted Chain (RISM-HNC)/ Simulation Method for Free Energy of Solvation, Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 112 (8) 2340-2348 (2008).


V Rezania, J.A. Tuszynski and M. Hendzel, Modeling transcription factor binding events to DNA using a random walker/jumper representation on a 1D/2D lattice with different affinity sites, Physical Biology Volume 4, Number 4, pp 256-268, December 2007


Tyler Luchko, J. Torin Huzil, Maria Stepanova and Jack Tuszynski, Conformational Analysis of the Carboxy-Terminal Tails of Human β -Tubulin Isotypes, Biophysical Journal (2008) 94: 1971-1982.


J. A. Tuszynski, E. J. Carpenter, T. Luchko and T. Huzil and R. F. Luduena, Electrostatic Properties of Tubulin Isoforms and Their Consequences for Drug Binding to Microtubules, Canadian Journal of Physics (accepted October 12, 2007).


V. Rezania and J.A. Tuszynski, From a Quantum Mechanical Description of the Assembly Process in Microtubules to Their Sem-Classical Nonlinear Dynamics, Quantum Biosystes, vol. 1 , 1-20 (2007)


http://www.quantumbionet.org/eng/index.php?pagina=106.


T.J. A. Craddock and J.A. Tuszynski, On the Role of Microtubules in the Cognitive Brain Functions, NeuroQuantology Journal, Vol. 5, issue 1 March 2007, pp. 32-57 www.neuroquantology.com


S. Shen, G. Hu and J.A. Tuszynski, Analysis of Protein Three-Dimensional Structure Using Amino Acid Depths, The Protein Journal , vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 183-192 (2007).


J.T. Huzil, K. Chen, L. Kurgan and J.A. Tuszynski, The Roles of β Tubulin Mutations and Isotype Expression in Acquired Drug Resistance, Cancer Informatics vol. 3, 159-181 (2007).


M.V. Sataric, L. Matsson and J.A. Tuszynski, Complex Movements of Motor Protein relay Helices During the Power Stroke, Physical Review E vol.74 no. 5, November 3 issue (7 pages), 2006 also published in November 15, 2006 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research


J. Ruan, K. Chen, J. A. Tuszynski, and L. A. Kurgan, Quantitative Analysis of the Conservation of the Tertiary Structure of Protein Segments, The Protein Journal, vol 25, no.5 (2006) 301-315.


R.E. Marsh, J.A. Tuszynski , Fractal Michaelis-Menten kinetics under steady state conditions: Application to mibefradil, Pharmaceutical Research 12, 2760-7 (2006).


E. J. Carpenter, J. T. Huzil, R. F. Ludueña, and J. A. Tuszynski Homology Modeling of Tubulin: Influence Predictions for Microtubule’s Biophysical Properties, European Journal of Biophysics vol. 36, no.1(2006) 35-43.


J. Fuite, R. Marsh and J.A. Tuszynski, An Application of Prony’s Sum of Exponentials Method to Pharmacokinetic Data Analysis, Communications in Computational Physics vol. 2 no.1 (2007) 87-98.


H. Bolterauer, J.A. Tuszynski and E. Unger, A directed binding mechanism of processive motion for the kinesin motor protein families, Acta Physica Polonica B vol. 37, no. 5 (2006) 1425-1443.


P. Chelminiak, J.M. Dixon, J.A. Tuszynski, R.E. Marsh , Applicaton of a random network with a variable geometry of links to the kinetics of drug elimination in healthy and diseased livers, Physical Review E 73, 051912 (2006), also in the June 1, 2006 issue of Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research.


Priel, A.J. Ramos, J.A. Tuszynski and H.F. Cantiello, A Bio-Polymer Transistor: Electrical Amplification by Microtubules, Biophysical Journal vol. 90 issue 12: 4639-4643 (2006).


J. Ruan, S. Shen, B. Kai, J.A. Tuszynski, J.T. Huzil and E. Carpenter, Probabilistic Analysis of the frequencies of amino acid pairs within characterized protein sequences, Physica A370, 651-662 (2006).


J.T. Huzil, R.F. Luduena and J.A. Tuszynski, Modeling human beta tubulin isoforms and their implications for drug binding, Nanotechnology 17, no.4, S90-S100 (2006).


J.A. Tuszynski, A. Priel and N. Woolf, Transitions in Microtubule C-termini Conformations as a Possible Dendritic Signaling Phenomenon, European Biophysics Journal 35, Number 1, December 2005, 40 – 52.


M. V.Satarić, B. M.Satarić and J. A.Tuszynski Nonlinear model of Microtubule Dynamics, Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 24, no. 3 (2005) 255-264.


A.Priel, J. A. Tuszynski and H. F. Cantiello, Electrodynamic Signaling by the Dendritic Cytoskeleton: Towards and Intracellular Information Processing Model, Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, 24, no.3, pp. 221-231.


J.A. Tuszynski, E.J. Carpenter, J.T. Huzil, W. Malinski, T. Luchko & R.F. Luduena (2005). The evolution of the structure of tubulin isoforms and its potential consequences for the role and function of microtubules in cells and embryos, Special Issue of The International Journal of Developmental Biology (IJDB) dedicated to the Morphodynamics 50, 341-358 (2006).


P. Chelmniak, R. Marsh, J.A. Tuszynski, J.M. Dixon, K.J.E. Vos, Investigations of the Asymptotic time dependence in the fractal pharmacokinetics of a two-compartment model, Physical Review E 2005 Sep;72 (3 Pt 1): 031903.


J.A. Tuszynski, T. Luchko, S. Portet and J.M. Dixon , Anisotropic elastic properties of microtubules, European Journal of Physics E: Soft Condensed Matter, 17 (No.1), 29 – 35 (2005)


S. Portet, J.A. Tuszynski, C.M. Hogue and J.M. Dixon, Elastic vibrations in seamless microtubules, European Biophysics Journal, 34, Number 7, October 2005, 912 - 920


J.A. Tuszynski, J.A. Brown, E. Crawford, E.J. Carpenter, M.L.A. Nip, J.M. Dixon and M.V. Sataric, Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Tubulin Structure and Calculations of Electrostatic Properties of Microtubules, Mathematical and Computer Modelling 41, 1055-1070 (2005)


S. Zdravkovic, J. A. Tuszynski, and M. V. Sataric Peyrard-Bishop-Dauxois Model of DNA Dynamics and Impact of Viscosity, Journal of Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience 2 (2), 263-271 (2005)


M.V. Sataric, J.A. Tuszynski, Nonlinear Dynamics of Microtubules and Its Biophysical Implications, Journal of Biological Physics, 31, Numbers 3-4, pp. 487 - 500 (2005).


J.A. Tuszynski, M.V. Sataric, S. Portet and J.M. Dixon, Gravitational Symmetry Breaking Leads to a Polar Liquid Crystal Phase of Microtubules In Vitro, Journal of Biological Physics, 31, Numbers 3-4, pp. 477 – 486 (2005).


J.A. Tuszynski, M.V. Sataric, S. Portet and J.M. Dixon, Physical Interpretation of Microtubule Self-organization in Gravitational Fields. Physics Letters A 340, 175-180 (2005).


J.M. Dixon, J.A. Tuszynski and E.J. Carpenter, Analytical Expressions for Energies, Degeneracies and Critical Temperatures of the 2D Square and 3D Cubic Ising Models, Physica A 349, 487-510 (2005)


C. Beauchemin, J. Samuel, and J. Tuszynski, A Simple Cellular Automaton Model for Influenza A Viral Infections, Journal Theoretical. Biology 232, 223-234 (2005)


H. Bolterauer, J. A. Tuszynski, E. Unger,Directed binding: a novel physical mechanism that describes the directional motion of two-headed kinesin motor proteins, Cell Biochemistry and Biophysics, 42, 95-119 (2005)


J.A. Tuszynski, S. Portet and J.M. Dixon, Nonlinear assembly kinetics and mechanical properties of biopolymers, Nonlinear Analysis, 63/5-7 no.3, pp 915-925 (2005)