Elaine C. Meng
B.S.Pharm., Ph.D
My interests are in protein structure/function, computational chemistry, scientific and technical writing, and editing. I am a Specialist in the Babbitt group and UCSF Computer Graphics Laboratory (CGL). The molecular graphics and analysis program Chimera is developed by the CGL. As a member of the development team, I write the Chimera User's Guide, interact with users, test the software, and make suggestions. Other laboratories I have worked in are the Kuntz group (docking and scoring), the Kollman group (molecular dynamics and free energy calculations), the Cohen group (structure-based drug design), and the Bourne group (structure/function of G proteins and GPCRs – see Henry's book!).
Background
I was born and raised in Ohio. After attending a variety of educational institutions, I graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1988 with a degree in Pharmacy. I then proceeded to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), completing a PhD in 1993 under the supervision of Dr. Irwin "Tack" Kuntz. I spent two years as a postdoc in Dr. Peter Kollman's group before taking a staff position at UCSF. See my CV for details.
I married Eric Pettersen in October 1995. My hobbies include playing the piano, reading, solving crosswords, and finding typos.
Pictures:
- CGL staff, Tiburon (September 2009)
- CGL staff, Tiburon (May 2008)
- CGL staff, Tiburon (June 2005)
- CGL staff, Mission Bay (June 2005)
Selected Publications
- DOCK 6: combining techniques to model RNA-small molecule complexes. Lang PT, Brozell SR, Mukherjee S, Pettersen EF, Meng EC, Thomas V, Rizzo RC, Case DA, James TL, Kuntz ID. RNA. 2009 Jun;15(6):1219-30.
- Tools for integrated sequence-structure analysis with UCSF Chimera. Meng EC, Pettersen EF, Couch GS, Huang CC, Ferrin TE. BMC Bioinformatics. 2006 Jul 12;7:339.
- UCSF Chimera--a visualization system for exploratory research and analysis. Pettersen EF, Goddard TD, Huang CC, Couch GS, Greenblatt DM, Meng EC, Ferrin TE. J Comput Chem. 2004 Oct;25(13):1605-12.
- Superfamily active site templates. Meng EC, Polacco BJ, Babbitt PC. Proteins. 2004 Jun 1;55(4):962-76.
- Receptor activation: what does the rhodopsin structure tell us? Meng EC, Bourne HR. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2001 Nov;22(11):587-93.
- An activation switch in the ligand binding pocket of the C5a receptor. Gerber BO, Meng EC, Dötsch V, Baranski TJ, Bourne HR. J Biol Chem. 2001 Feb 2;276(5):3394-400.
- Rhodopsin sees the light. Bourne HR, Meng EC. Science. 2000 Aug 4;289(5480):733-4.
- Molecular Dynamics Studies of the Properties of Water around Simple Organic Solutes. Meng EC, Kollman PA. J Phys Chem. 1996;100(27):11460-70.
- Investigating the Anomalous Solvation Free Energies of Amines with a Polarizable Potential. Meng EC, Caldwell JW, Kollman PA. J Phys Chem. 1996;100(6):2367-71.
- Evaluating docked complexes with the HINT exponential function and empirical atomic hydrophobicities. Meng EC, Kuntz ID, Abraham DJ, Kellogg GE. J Comput Aided Mol Des. 1994 Jun;8(3):299-306.
- Automated Docking with Grid-Based Energy Evaluation. Meng EC, Shoichet BK, Kuntz ID. J Comput Chem. 1992 May;13(4):505-24.
- Determination of Molecular Topology and Atomic Hybridization States from Heavy Atom Coordinates. Meng EC, Lewis RA. J Comput Chem. 1991 Sep;12(7):891-8.
- A novel synthesis of xanthines: support for a new binding mode for xanthines with respect to adenosine at adenosine receptors. Peet NP, Lentz NL, Meng EC, Dudley MW, Ogden AM, Demeter DA, Weintraub HJ, Bey P. J Med Chem. 1990 Dec;33(12):3127-30.
See also...
- CV (lists all publications)
- list of online resources for structure superposition
- list of online resources for sequence alignments
