Dr. Chen Keasar

Lecturer

Address:	Department of Computer Science and Department of Life Sciences Ben-Gurion University P.O. Box 653 Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
Office:	Building 58, Room 318
Email:
Phone:	+972 (0) 8 647 7875
Fax:	+972 (0) 8 647 7650
Office hours:	Wednesday 11:00-13:00

Research | Publications | Teaching | Graduate Students | Personal

Research

Protein structure prediction
- Merging chemistry and evolution based knowledge.
- Cooperative energy functions.
- A new molecular modeling suite MESHI
Peptide structure prediction
Prediction of peptide stability
Structure based function prediction
Applying bioinformatics tools to real world problems

Publications

Refereed publications:
1. R. Elber, A. Roitberg, C. Simmerling, R. Goldstein, H. Li, G. Verkhivker, C. Keasar, J. Zhang and A. Ulitsky, MOIL: A Program for simulations of macromolecules, Computer Physics Communications, 91:159-189 (1995).
2. C. Keasar and R. Elber, Homology as a Tool in optimization problems: structure determination of 2D heteropolymers. J. Phys. Chem. 99:11550-11556 (1995)
3. C. Keasar, R. Elber and J. Skolnick - Simultaneous and coupled energy optimization of homologous proteins: a new tool for structure prediction. Folding and Design 2:247-259 (1997).
4. C. Keasar and R. Rosenfeld. Empirical modifications to the amber/OPLS potential for predicting the solution conformations of cyclic peptides by vacuum calculations. Folding and Design 3:379-388 (1998)
5. C. Keasar, D. Tobi, R. Elber and J. Skolnick, Coupling the folding of homologous proteins. (1998) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A, 95: 5880-5883 (1998).
6. C. Keasar and M. Levitt. A novel approach to decoy set generation: Designing a physical energy function having local minima with native structure characteristics. (2003) J. Mol. Biol. 329, 159-174
7. Yosef I, Irihimovitch V, Knopf JA, Cohen I, Dahan I, Nahum E, Keasar C, Shapira M, RNA binding activity of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit from chlamydomonas reinhardtii. (2004) J. Biol. Chem. 279 (11): 10148-10156.
8. Yoffe Y, Zuberek J, Lewdorowicz M, Zeira Z, Keasar C, Orr-Dahan I, Jankowska-Anyszka M, Stepinski J, Darzynkiewicz E, Shapira M. Cap-binding activity of an eIF4E homolog from Leishmania. (2004) RNA 10(11):1764-75. Epub 2004 Sep 23.
Abstracts in conferences:
1. C. Keasar, R. Olander and R. Rosenfeld. High throughput structure prediction of cyclic peptides. Gordon Research Conference in computational chemistry, Oxford England Jul 2000
2. Yalovsky. Photosystem I - structure, function, biogenesis and assembly. Mol. Biol. of Photosynthesis, Tempe Arizona Oct. 1991
3. R. Nechushtai, O. Almog, Y. Cohen, T. Gilon. Z. Karmona, O. Lotan, C. Keasar, D. Michaeli and S. Yalovsky. Photosystem I - biogenesis, assembly and regulation of its expression. 3rd Int. Plant Mol. Biol. Congress. Tucson Arizona Oct. 1991.
4. C. Keasar, Y. Cohen and R. Nechushtai. The function of the reducing site of photosystem I: subunit VII - ferredoxin interactions. Presented at the 57th annual meeting of the Israeli Society of Chemistry, Haifa - 1992.
5. Y. Cohen, C. Keasar, O. Lotan, T. Gilon, A. Menachem, D. Michaeli and R. Nechushtai. An insight into the assembly and organization of photosystem I in the thylakoid membranes. The IXth International Congress on Photosynthesis. Nagoya, Japan - 1992. Published in: Photosynthesis Research, 34 , S-4-2, p. 86 (1992).
Book chapters:
1. N. Ohad, C. Keasar and J. Hirschberg. Molecular Modeling of the Pastoquinone (QB) Binding Site in Photosystem II. (1992) Research in Photosynthesis Vol. II, N. Murata ed. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 223-226.
2. Y. Cohen, C. Keasar, O. Lotan, T. Gilon, A. Menachem, D. Michaeli and R. Nechushtai. An Insight into the Assembly and Organization of Photosystem I in the Thylakoid Membranes. (1992) Research in Photosynthesis Vol. I, N. Murata ed. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 4505-4513

Teaching

Graduate Students

Nir Kalisman	nirka at cs.bgu.ac.il
Karin Noy	noyka at bgumail.bgu.ac.il
Dan Reshef	reshefd at bgumail.bgu.ac.il
Ami Levi	amilev at cs.bgu.ac.il

Personal
Married with three children.