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 37, Room 102
Email:
Phone:	+972 (0) 8 647 7875
Fax:	+972 (0) 8 647 7650
Office hours:	Wednesday 14:00-16:00
Home Page in Hebrew

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. C. Keasar and R. Elber, Homology as a Tool in optimization problems: structure determination of 2D heteropolymers. J. Phys. Chem. 99:11550-11556 (1995) (IF 5.226) PDF
2. 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). ScienceDirect
3. 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). PubMed
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) PubMed
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. PubMed
6. . 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 (27 citations, IF 4.89; JR 53 - biochemistry & molecualr biology) PubMed
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. (9 citations, IF 5.8; JR 1- biochemistry & molecualr biology) PubMed
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. (6 citations, IF 5.11; JR 52 – biology & biochemistry) PubMed
9. Kalisman N, Levi A, Maximova T, Reshef D, Zafriri-Lynn S, Gleyzer Y, Keasar C. MESHI – A new library of Java classes for molecular modelling. (2005) Bioinformatics 21:9031-9032. (3 citations, IF 4.9; JR 2 – Mathematical & computational biology) PubMed
10. Maximova T, Keasar C. A Novel Algorithm for Non-Bonded-List Updating in Molecular Simulations. (2006) Journal of Computational Biology 13: 1041–1048 (two citations, IF 2.0; JR 8 - Mathematical & computational biology) PubMed
11. Amir E.D., Kalisman N., Keasar C., Differentiable, multi-dimensional, knowledge-based energy terms for torsion angle probabilities and propensities (2008) Proteins: Structure, Function and Bioinformatics 72:62-63(no citations; IF 3.73; JR 12 – Biophysics) PubMed
12. Noy K., Kalisman N., Keasar C., Prediction of structural stability of short beta-hairpin peptides by molecular dynamics and knowledge-based potentials. (2008) BMC-Structural Biology 8:27 ( no citations; IF 3.06; JR 22 – Biophysics) PubMed
13. Ohana E., Hoch E., Keasar C., Kambe T., Yifrach O., Hershfinkel M., Sekler I., Identification of the Zn2+ binding site and mode of operation of the mammalian Zn2+ transporter. (2009) Journal of Biological Chemistry 284(26):17677-86 (no citations; IF 5.6; JR 40 – Biochemistry & molecular biology) PubMed
14. Levy-Moonshine E., David Amir E., and Chen Keasar Enhancement of beta-sheet assembly by cooperative hydrogen bonds potential.(2009) Bioinformatics 25: 2639-2645 (no citations; IF 4.3; JR 10 – Biochemical research methods) PubMed
15. Gamliel R. Kolodny R. Kedem K. and Keasar C. “A library of protein surface patches discriminates between native structures and decoys generated by structure prediction servers.” BMC Struct. Bio., 11:20 (2011) PubMed
16. Yahalom, R., Reshef, D., Wiener, A., Frankel, S., Kalisman, N., Lerner, B. and Keasar, C. (2011), Structure-based identification of catalytic residues. Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics, 79: 1952–1963. PubMed

Teaching

Graduate Students

Nir Kalisman

Ami Levi

Karin Noy

Dan Reshef

Guy Karlibach

Ohad Greenshpan

El-ad David Amir

Ran Yahalom

Oren Wolfshtat

Daniel Gordon

Roy Gamliel

Aviva Dayan

Personal
Married with three children.