William Irvine
Doctor of Philosophy, (Computational Biochemistry)
Study Completed: 2017
College of Sciences
Citation
Thesis Title
Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Protein-Membrane Interactions Focusing on PI3Ká and Its Oncogenic Mutants
Read article at Massey Research Online: 
Protein function is intrinsically linked to its structure and motion, and highly dependent on its environment. Its structure is derived from its sequence, and quite often a mutation of that sequence will lead to protein malfunction resulting in disease. One such protein is PI3K, an enzyme responsible for the regulation of important functions such as cell proliferation and growth. Mutation of this protein leads to hyperactivation and tumour development, featuring in more than 30% of cancers. Mr Irvine developed and implemented various computational techniques to characterise the effect of carcinogenic mutations on PI3K’s behaviour at the cellular membrane interface, the source of its target. His research results allowed novel insight into the mechanisms by which the studied mutations increased PI3K’s activity.
Supervisors
Associate Professor Jane Allison
Dr Jack Flanagan
Distinguished Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger