PURDUE
____________________________
Department of Chemistry
UNIVERSITY
Dr. Jesús A. Izaguirre
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Notre Dame
326C Cushing Hall
Notre Dame, IN 46556
May 17, 2005
Dear Dr. Izaguirre,
This letter is to support the postdoctoral application of Dr. Ying Gao in your laboratory.
I have been working in Professor Michael Laskowski’s group as a senior research
scientist and came to know Dr. Gao when she joined with Michael Laskowski as a
postdoctoral fellow in September 2003. Our research group at Purdue has been heavily
engaged in quantitative interpretations of the interaction of serine proteinase inhibitors
with serine proteinases. The experimental work in our laboratory has involved
preparation of a very large number of single, double, and multiple mutants of turkey
ovomucoid third domain (a Kazal family inhibitor) and the measurement of their
association equilibrium constants with a large number of serine proteinases. These
studies have been supported and greatly augmented by contributions on structural aspects
of inhibitors and inhibitor-proteinase complexes by our collaboration with x-ray
crystallography and NMR groups.
Dr. Gao was specifically hired because of her modeling expertise which the group needed
but was lacking. Sadly, Michael Laskowski passed away on August 2, 2004, without us
benefiting much from Dr. Gao’s expertise. Professor Laskowski had a very high opinion
about her. He assigned many small computational projects to Dr. Gao which she
completed quite efficiently. My own assessment about Dr. Gao is that she is a very hard
working researcher and loves what she is doing. She also has a strong publication record
based on her work in China.
Given her background, I believe she would be a very good fit in your research group.
Sincerely,
(Mohammad A. Qasim)
Research Scientist
1393 Herbert C. Brown Laboratory of Chemistry, Richard B. Wetherill Laboratory of Chemistry,
560 Oval Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2084 . Fax: (765) 494-0239