Yuh Min Chook, PhD

Associate Professor
Endowed Title: Eugene McDermott Scholar in Medical Research 2002-2006
Pharmacology
Graduate Program: Molecular Biophysics

Contact Information

UT Southwestern Medical Center
5323 Harry Hines Boulevard
Dallas, Texas 75390

Office Phone: 214-645-6167
Office Fax: 214-645-6291

yuhmin.chook@utsouthwestern.edu

Biography

Dr. Chook was born in Perak, Malaysia in 1965. After completing high school in her hometown of Teluk Intan, she received an AB degree in Chemistry and Biology (major at Haverford College) from Bryn Mawr College in 1988. She received a PhD in Biophysics in 1994 from Harvard University, where she studied the structures and mechanism of chorismate mutase with William Lipscomb. Her postdoctoral work was with Emil Pai and Tony Pawson in Toronto studying signal transduction in the Ras pathway, and with Günter Blobel at the Rockefeller University studying the mechanisms of nuclear import.

 In December of 2001, Dr Chook joined the Department of Pharmacology at UT Southwestern as an Assistant Professor and Eugene McDermott Scholar in Biomedical Research. The Chook laboratory aims to understand mechanisms of nucleocytoplasmic transport by Karyopherinβs (Kapβs), classify nuclear traffic, and discover how Kapβs organize and regulate cellular functions. They seek to discover these roles of Kapβs through a combination of structural, biochemical, biophysical, bioinformatics and cell biological investigations focused on Kapβ-substrate interactions.

 

Education

Graduate SchoolHarvard University (1993)

Research Interests

Bioinformatics
Biophysics
Cell Biology
Protein transport, nucleocytoplasmic transport, targeting signals
Structural Biology

Publications

Featured
Conformational heterogeneity of Karyopherin-beta2 is segmental.

Cansizoglu, A. E. and Chook, Y. M. , Structure , November 2007; (15(11)):1431-1441

Featured
Structure-based design of a pathway-specific nuclear import inhibitor.

Cansizoglu, A. E., Lee, B. J., Zhang, Z. C., Fontoura, B. M. A. and Chook, Y. M. , Nat. Struc. & Mol. Biol. , May 2007; (14(5)):452-454

Featured
Structure of the nuclear transport complex karyopherinβ2-Ran.GppNHp.

Chook, Y.M. and Blobel, G. , Nature , May 1999; (399):230-237

Featured
Uncoupling Ran binding and substrate dissociation in the Karyopherinβ2 nuclear import pathway.

Chook, Y.M., Jung, A., Rosen, M.K. and Blobel, G. , Biochemistry , June 2002; (41):6955-6966

Featured
Rules for nuclear localization sequence recognition by Karyopherinβ2.

Lee, B. J., Cansizoglu, A. E., Suel, K. E., Louis, T. H., Zichao Zhang and Chook, Y. M. , Cell , August 2006; (126):543-558

Kap104p imports the PY-NLS-containing transcription factor Tfg2p into the nucleus.

Suel, K. E. and Chook, Y. M. , Journal of Biological Chemistry , June 2009; (284(23)):15416-15424

Modular organization and combinatorial energetics of proline-tyrosine nuclear localization signals.

Suel, K. E., Gu, H. and Chook, Y. M. , PLoS Biology , June 2008; (6(6)):e137

Structural basis for leucine-rich nuclear export signal recognition by CRM1.

Dong, X., Biswas, A., Suel, K. E, Jackson, L. K., Martinez, R., Gu, H. and Chook, Y. M. , Nature , April 2009; (458):1136-1142

Structural basis for assembly and disassembly of the CRM1 nuclear export complex.

Dong, X., Biswas, A. and Chook, Y. M. , Nature Structural and Molecular Biology , April 2009; (16(5)):558-560

Structural Analysis of Karyopherin-mediated nucleocytoplasmic transport

Zhang, Z. C. and Chook, Y. M. , Landes Bioscience , 2008; (Nuclear Transport):edited by Ralph Kehlenbach

Honors/Awards

Eugene McDermott Scholar in Biomedical Research

U.T. Southwestern Endowed Scholar Award (2001)

Life Sciences Research Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship

Rockefeller University (1996)

Human Frontiers in Science Program Postdoctoral Fellowship

University of Toronto/Mount Sinai Hospital (1994)

Certificate of Distinction in Teaching

Harvard-Danforth Center for Teaching and Learning, Harvard University (1990)