Axel T. Brunger
Encyclopedia
Axel T. Brunger is a German American
biophysicist and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University
, and an Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Investigator.
in 1977. He completed his Diplom in Physics from the University of Hamburg in 1980. He completed his PhD in Biophysics from Technical University of Munich
in 1982.
before joining the faculty at Yale University
in 1987. From 1993 to 2000, he was a professor Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. He joined the faculty at Stanford in 2000.
, which came out in 1987. The program made use of a method called simulated annealing
to refine X-ray crystal structures.
That was the first time a modern optimization technique was applied to this problem of refinement. Before that program had become available, it often took people years to refine crystal structures. It was a manually intense process. When Brunger introduced simulated annealing to crystallographic refinement in his 1987 paper, the time to refine crystal structures was significantly reduced and it had a tremendous impact in the crystallographic community.
X-PLOR also featured a technique to cross-validate the model given the observed data, and it came out in 1992. In the mid-1990s, his team decided to extend X-PLOR into a complete system to solve structures, which then became CNS
. X-PLOR was limited to the step of refining crystal structures, which is the step where one changes the model to get the best match with the observed refraction data. CNS does everything from obtaining phases from experimental data to molecular replacement phasing from known homologous structures.
He also works to understand the molecular mechanism of synaptic neurotransmission. He is mainly interested in the structure, function, and dynamics of key players in the synaptic vesicle fusion machinery.
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
biophysicist and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, and an Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a United States non-profit medical research organization based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. It was founded by the American businessman Howard Hughes in 1953. It is one of the largest private funding organizations for biological and medical research in the United...
Investigator.
Early life
Brunger was born in Leipzig, Germany on November 25, 1956. He graduated with a degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of HamburgUniversity of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
in 1977. He completed his Diplom in Physics from the University of Hamburg in 1980. He completed his PhD in Biophysics from Technical University of Munich
Technical University of Munich
The Technische Universität München is a research university with campuses in Munich, Garching, and Weihenstephan...
in 1982.
Academic career
Brunger held a NATO postdoctoral fellowship and subsequently became a research associate in the Department of Chemistry, Harvard UniversityHarvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
before joining the faculty at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1987. From 1993 to 2000, he was a professor Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University. He joined the faculty at Stanford in 2000.
Research
Brunger is known for developing a computer program used for solving structures based on X-ray diffraction data or solution NMR data. The program is widely used because of its various features. The program is a major extension of the program his team developed called X-PLORX-PLOR
X-PLOR is a software package for computational structural biology originally developed by Axel Brunger at Yale University. It was first published in 1987 as an off-shoot of CHARMM - a similar program that ran on Cray supercomputers...
, which came out in 1987. The program made use of a method called simulated annealing
Simulated annealing
Simulated annealing is a generic probabilistic metaheuristic for the global optimization problem of locating a good approximation to the global optimum of a given function in a large search space. It is often used when the search space is discrete...
to refine X-ray crystal structures.
That was the first time a modern optimization technique was applied to this problem of refinement. Before that program had become available, it often took people years to refine crystal structures. It was a manually intense process. When Brunger introduced simulated annealing to crystallographic refinement in his 1987 paper, the time to refine crystal structures was significantly reduced and it had a tremendous impact in the crystallographic community.
X-PLOR also featured a technique to cross-validate the model given the observed data, and it came out in 1992. In the mid-1990s, his team decided to extend X-PLOR into a complete system to solve structures, which then became CNS
Crystallography and NMR system
CNS or Crystallography and NMR system, is a software library for computational structural biology. It is an offshoot of X-PLOR and uses much of the same syntax. It is used in the fields of X-ray crystallography and NMR analysis....
. X-PLOR was limited to the step of refining crystal structures, which is the step where one changes the model to get the best match with the observed refraction data. CNS does everything from obtaining phases from experimental data to molecular replacement phasing from known homologous structures.
He also works to understand the molecular mechanism of synaptic neurotransmission. He is mainly interested in the structure, function, and dynamics of key players in the synaptic vesicle fusion machinery.