Axel T. Brunger
{{Short description|German American biophysicist}}
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| birth_place = Leipzig, East Germany
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| known_for = Developing Crystallography and NMR system
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Axel T. Brunger (born November 25, 1956) is a German American biophysicist. He is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.{{cite web|title=Axel Brunger|url=https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/axel-brunger|website=Stanford School of Medicine|accessdate=14 March 2015}} He served as the Chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology (2013–2017).
Early life
Brunger was born in Leipzig, East Germany, on November 25, 1956. He graduated with a degree in Physics and Mathematics from the University of Hamburg 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, advised by Klaus Schulten.{{cite journal|last1=Mossman|first1=K.|title=Profile of Axel Brunger|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|date=30 July 2008|volume=105|issue=31|pages=10643–10645|doi=10.1073/pnas.0806286105|bibcode = 2008PNAS..10510643M|pmid=18667701|pmc=2504785|doi-access=free}}
Academic career
Brunger held a NATO postdoctoral fellowship to work with Martin Karplus at Harvard University, where he subsequently became a research associate in the department of chemistry after a brief return to Germany. He joined the molecular biophysics and biochemistry department at Yale University in 1987 and moved to Stanford University in 2000. Brunger was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2005 and won the inaugural DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences in 2011.{{cite web|title=Axel T. Brunger wins inaugural ASBMB DeLano Award|url=http://www.asbmb.org/asbmbtoday/asbmbtoday_article.aspx?id=11372&terms=axel|accessdate=22 January 2015}}
Research
Brunger is known for developing a computer program called CNS used for solving structures based on X-ray diffraction or solution NMR data, which was first released in 1992. The program is a major extension of a 1987 program developed with John Kuriyan and Karplus called X-PLOR,{{cite journal|last1=Brünger|first1=AT|last2=Kuriyan|first2=J|last3=Karplus|first3=M|title=Crystallographic R factor refinement by molecular dynamics.|journal=Science|date=23 January 1987|volume=235|issue=4787|pages=458–60|pmid=17810339|bibcode = 1987Sci...235..458B |doi = 10.1126/science.235.4787.458 |s2cid=38261757}} whose original inspiration was motivated by Marius Clore's efforts in interpreting NMR data and which has been extended by Clore's continued development of XPLOR-NIH.
These programs make use of a method called simulated annealing in conjunction with molecular dynamics to refine protein structures. X-PLOR was the first time a modern optimization technique was applied to the problem of crystallographic refinement. Brunger also subsequently introduced the RFree technique to cross-validate the model given the observed data.{{cite journal |author=Brunger AT |year=1992 |title=Free R value: a novel statistical quantity for assessing the accuracy of crystal structures |journal=Nature |volume=355 |pages=472–475 |doi=10.1038/355472a0|bibcode = 1992Natur.355..472B |pmid=18481394 |issue=6359|s2cid=2462215 |author-link=Axel Brunger }} In the mid-1990s, his team extended X-PLOR into a complete system to solve structures, which then became the more full-featured tool CNS, capable of performing a series of steps necessary for crystallography structure determination, such as obtaining phases from experimental data and molecular replacement phasing from known homologous structures.{{cite journal|last1=Brünger|first1=AT|last2=Adams|first2=PD|last3=Clore|first3=GM|last4=DeLano|first4=WL|last5=Gros|first5=P|last6=Grosse-Kunstleve|first6=RW|last7=Jiang|first7=JS|last8=Kuszewski|first8=J|last9=Nilges|first9=M|last10=Pannu|first10=NS|last11=Read|first11=RJ|last12=Rice|first12=LM|last13=Simonson|first13=T|last14=Warren|first14=GL|title=Crystallography & NMR system: A new software suite for macromolecular structure determination.|journal=Acta Crystallographica Section D|date=1 September 1998|volume=54|issue=Pt 5|pages=905–21|pmid=9757107|doi=10.1107/s0907444998003254|bibcode=1998AcCrD..54..905B |s2cid=33910776 }}
Brunger's research group currently studies the molecular mechanism of synaptic vesicle fusion in neurotransmission.
References
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External links
- [https://www.hhmi.org/scientists/axel-t-brunger Biography of Axel T. Brunger]
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20061019051312/http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?&link1=Browse&link2=Results&id=5515 Profile of Axel T. Brunger]
- [http://www.pnas.org/content/105/31/10643.full?sid=390ed2d2-7bd8-40c9-8ebe-5a94dabf557b PNAS Inaugural Profile]
- [http://atbweb.stanford.edu Website of Axel T. Brunger]
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Category:21st-century American physicists
Category:University of Hamburg alumni
Category:Technical University of Munich alumni
Category:Emigrants from West Germany to the United States
Category:Harvard University staff
Category:Yale Department of Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry faculty
Category:Howard Hughes Medical Investigators
Category:Stanford University School of Medicine faculty
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences