Yujia Xu

Yujia Xu received her PhD from the University of Connecticut. At Hunter College, she teaches courses in biochemistry. Her research focuses on the use recombinant collagen triple helix as a model system to explore the determining factors that govern the higher level molecular assembly.

• University of Connecticut (PhD 1995)

Courses taught have included:

• CHEM 35000 Biophysical
• CHEM 368000 Structural Biology
• CHEM 14000 General Chemistry II
• CHEM 357000 Physical Chemistry Lab II
• CHEM 37600 Biochemistry
• CHEM 65000 Biophysical Chemistry
• CHEM 66800 Structural Biology

Research Focus

• Protein design and biomaterials
• Biochemistry

Research Statement

Functions often depend on the assembling of macromolecules into well-defined networks and complexes. Our research is to use recombinant collagen triple helix as a model system to explore the determining factors that govern the higher level molecular assembly. About twenty different types of collagen molecules have been identified in humans, occurring in almost every tissue. Different types of collagen share the same basic structure unit – the triple helix, consisting of three poly-peptide chains with the characteristic (Gly-X-Y)n repeating (amino acid) sequence. The triple helix further assembles into different supramolecular structures that confer the diverse biological properties of different tissues. Understanding of the mechanism of molecular assembly of collagen will be essential for our understanding of the molecular basis of tissue functions, the mechanism of macromolecular organizations and how mutations in collagens cause diseases.

• Chen, F., Strawn, R. and Y. Xu* (2019) To Predominant Roles of Sequence Periodicity in the Self-assembly of Collagen-mimetic Mini-fibrils, Protein Sci. 28(9):1640-1651
• Strawn, R., F. Chen, P. Kaur, S. Wong, A. Arias, M. De Leeuv, and Y. Xu* (2018) To Achieve Self-assembled Collagen Mimetic Fibrils Using Designed Peptides, Biopolymers, (in print)
• Kaur, P., R. Strawn, H. Bai, K. Xu, G. Ordas, H. Matsui and Y. Xu* (2015) The self-assembly of a mini-fibrils with axial periodicity from a designed collagen-mimetic triple helix. J. Biol. Chem. 290(14):9251-9261
• Kaur P., Y. Maeda,A. C. Mutter, T. Matsunaga, Y. Xu, and Matsui*, H., (2010) Three-Dimensional Directed Self-Assembly of Peptide Nanowires into Micrometer-Sized Crystalline Cubes with Nanoparticle Joints, Angewante Chemie Volume 49, Issue 45, pages 8375–8378
• Xu, K., Nowak, I., Kirchner, M., and Xu*, Y. (2007) The Severity of Osteogenesis Imperfecta Correlates with the Extent of Mutation Induced Disruption of Collagen Triple Helix: DEPENDENCE ON THE SEQUENCE LOCATIONS OF THE GLYCINE MUTATIONS. Submitted to J. Biol. Chem.
• Bai, H., Xu, K., Xu*, Y., and Matsui*, H., (2007) Fabrication of Au nanowire in uniform length and diameter using a new monodisperse and rigid biomolecular template, collagen triple helix, Angewante Chemie 46 (18): 3319-3322 (Selected as the ‘Hot Papers’ by the editor)
• Tsai, M., Xu, Y. and Dannenberg*, J. J. (2005) Completely Geometrically Optimized DFT/ONIOM Triple-Helical Collagen-like Structures Containing the ProProGly, ProProAla, ProProDAla and ProProDSer Triads, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (127):14130-14131Patent application (pending): Collagen based biomaterial