Jonah Schwartz

Current Research: Bidirectional Allostery in Allosteric Transcription Factors

Allostery is the property of proteins whereby a perturbation at one site (the allosteric site) causes a change at a distant site (the orthosteric site). This fundamental characteristic of proteins underlies processes ranging from protein signaling and feedback inhibition to DNA regulation. The significance of allosteric regulation has earned it the moniker “The Second Secret of Life,” yet our basic understanding of it remains limited. Using simple bacterial repressors as a model, I am investigating how changes in orthosteric interactions—specifically alterations to DNA binding sites—affect the protein’s allosteric function. By modifying the DNA operator and assessing outcomes such as the recovery of function or sensitivity to new ligands, I aim to demonstrate that allosteric communication is a bidirectional process in which the orthosteric site can influence the function of the allosteric site. This work will not only fundamentally advance our understanding of allostery but also reveal a new mechanism by which biology can tune function and adapt.