Lan Guan, M.D. Ph.D. | Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

Professor | Cell Physiology and Molecular Biophysics

Co-Director | Center for Membrane Protein Research

lan guan
 

3601 4th Street, STOP 6551
Lubbock, Texas 79430
Office Phone: (806) 743-3102
Office Room: 5A149
E-mail: Lan.Guan@ttuhsc.edu

Research Interest:

Membrane proteins constitute ~30% of all eukaryotic proteins and play crucial roles in many aspects of cell function. The long-term goal of our research is to understand the mechanisms of solute transport. Currently, we are studying cation-coupled bacterial and human transporters by an integrated approach including X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM, ligand binding thermodynamics, genetic engineering, novel amphiphiles, and many other biochemical & biophysical analyses.

Current Support:

NIH Award R01

Open position for PHD student

 

2024 & Other Selected Articles:

 

Hariharan, P., Shi, Y., Katsube, S., Willibal, K., Burrows, N. D., Mitchell, P., Bakhtiiari, A., Stanfield, S., Pardon, E., Kaback, H. R., Liang, R., Steyaert, J., Viner, R., and Guan, L. (2024) Mobile barrier mechanisms for Na+-coupled symport in an MFS sugar transporter. eLife. 12:92462.  DOI:https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.92462.3 Open access 

 

Guan, L. (2023) The rapid developments of membrane protein structure biology over the last two decades. BMC Biology 21,300. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-023-01795-9

  Selected Publications in the Past Years
 

Katsube, S., Willibal, K., Vemulapally, S., Hariharan, P., Tikhonova, E.,  Pardon, E., Kaback, H. R., Steyaert, J., and Guan, L. (2023) In vivo and in vitro characterizations of melibiose permease (MelB) conformation- dependent nanobodies reveal sugar-binding mechanisms, J Biol Chem 299:104967. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbc.2023.104967

JBC Cover Oct 2023; 299 (10)

  Blaimschein, N., Hariharan, P., Manioglu, S., Guan, L., & Muller, D. J. (2023) Substrate-binding guides individual melibiose permeases MelB to structurally soften and to destabilize cytoplasmic middle-loop C3. Structure, 31(1), 58-67 e54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.str.2022.11.011 
  Chua, G. L., Tan, B. C., Loke, R. Y. J., He, M., Chin, C. F., Wong, B. H., Kuk, A. C. Y., Ding, M., Wenk, M. R., Guan, L., Torta, F., and Silver, D. L. (2023) Mfsd2a utilizes a flippase mechanism to mediate omega-3 fatty acid lysolipid transport. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 120(10):e2215290120. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2215290120.
  Panda, A., Giska, F., Duncan, A. L., Welch, A. J., Brown, C., McAllister, R., Hariharan, P., Goder, J. N. D., Coleman, J., Ramakrishnan, S., Pincet, F.,  Guan, L.,  Krishnakumar, S., Rothman, J. E., and Gupta, K (2023) Direct determination of oligomeric organization of integral membrane proteins and lipids from intact customizable bilayer', Nature Methods, 20: 891-97.
  Guan, L. (2022) Editorial,  Structure and mechanism of membrane transporters. Scientific Reports 12:13248 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17524-1
  Katsube, S., Liang, R., Amin, A., Hariharan, P., & Guan, L. (2022). Molecular Basis for the Cation Selectivity of Salmonella typhimurium Melibiose Permease. Journal of Molecular Biology, 434(12), 167598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167598 
  Guan, L., Hariharan, P. (2021) X-ray crystallography reveals molecular recognition mechanism for sugar binding in a melibiose transporter MelB. Commun Biol 4, 931. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02462-x
  Guan, L. (2020) Glucose/Sugar Transport in Bacteria. Encyclopedia of Biochemistry, 3rd edition, Elsevier Inc. Published in the Life Sciences Reference Collection https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128194607000931
  H. Ronald Kaback and Lan Guan. (2019)  It takes two to tango: the dance of the permease. J Gen Physiol. 151(7):878-886. doi: 10.1085/jgp.201912377.
  Hariharan, P., Tikhonova, E., Medeiros-Silva, J., Jeucken, A., Bogdanov, M.V., Dowhan, W., Brouwers, J. F., Weingarth, M. and Guan, L. (2018) Structural and functional characterization of protein–lipid interactions of the Salmonella typhimurium melibiose transporter MelB. BMC Biology 16:85 doi: 10.1186/s12915-018-0553-0
  Guan, L. (2018) Na(+)/Melibiose Membrane Transport Protein, MelB. In: Roberts G., Watts A., European Biophysical Societies (eds) Encyclopedia of Biophysics. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-35943-9_10082-1
ncbi Hariharan, P. & Guan. L. (2017) Thermodynamic cooperativity of cosubstrate binding and cation selectivity of Salmonella typhimurium MelB. J Gen Physiol. (On the Cover and Highlighted by Research News, “A symporter’s secrets shown”). DOI: 10.1085/jgp.201711922. 149(11):1029-1039. DOI: 10.1085/jgp.201711788.
ncbi Ethayathulla, A.S., Yousef, M.S., Amin, A., Leblanc, G., Kaback, H.R., and Guan, L. (2014) Structure-based mechanism for Na(+)/melibiose symport by MelB. Nature Communications. 5: 3009. DOI:10.1038/ncomms4009.
ncbi Chae, P.S., Rasmussen S.G.F., Rana, R., Gotfryd, K., Chandra, R., Goren, M.A., Kruse, A.C., Nurva, S., Loland, J.C., Pierre, Y., Drew, D., Popot, J.L., Picot, D., Fox, B.G., Guan, L., Gether, U., Byrne, B., Kobilka, B., and Gellman, S.H. (2010) Maltose–neopentyl glycol (MNG) amphiphiles for solubilization, stabilization, and crystallization of membrane proteins. Nature Methods.  7(12):1003-1008. DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.1526.
ncbi Guan, L., Mirza, O., Verner, G., Iwata, S, and Kaback, H.R. (2007) Structural determination of the wild-type lactose permease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 104 (39):15294-15298. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0707688104.
ncbi Guan, L. & Kaback, H.R. (2007) Site-directed alkylation of cysteine to test solvent accessibility of membrane proteins. Nature Protocols. 2(28), 2012-2017. DOI: 10.1038/nprot.2007.275.
ncbi Guan, L. & Kaback, H.R. (2006) Lessons from lactose permease. Annual Review of Biophysics & Biomolecular Structure. (35):67-91.DOI: 10.1146/annurev.biophys.35.040405.102005.

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Lan Guan, M.D. Ph.D.

E-mail: lan.guan@ttuhsc.edu