Keynote Speaker
Ruth Nussinov, PhD
National Cancer Institute
United States
Ruth Nussinov’s algorithm for the prediction of RNA secondary structure is still the leading method. Nussinov pioneered the “conformational selection and population shift” (1999) as an alternative to the “induced fit” text-book model to explain molecular mechanism of recognition and posited that population shift underlies allosteric regulation. She proposed that all conformations pre-exit and extended this pre-existing ensemble model to catalysis (2000). She also proposed that all proteins are allosteric and posited that activation by oncogenic mutations mimic the activation mechanism of the wild-type protein. She unraveled the detailed oncogenic activation of PI3K, uncovered the structural basis for oncogenic Ras signaling and its mechanistic principles contributing to extraordinary advancements in understanding structure and function.
Dr. Nussinov served as the Editor-in-Chief of PLOS Computational Biology and is currently Editor-in-Chief of Current Opinion in Structural Biology. She is an elected Fellow of the Biophysical Society, the International Society of Computational Biology (ISCB), the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering AIMBE). She is a Highly Cited Researcher (ranking among the top 3000 researchers or 1% across all fields according to Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators, http://highlycited.com/ (December 2015 and 2018) "earning them the mark of exceptional impact"). Most of her publications are conceptualized and driven by her group.