Natalia Guevara
Professor
Ph.D. Moscow State University, Russia, 1989
Office: LHSB 2.214
Lab: SETB 1.208
Phone: 956-882-6773
Email: Natalia.Guevara@utrgv.edu
Teaching
PHYS 1401 BB - General Physics I
PHYS 1401 02B - General Physics I
PHYS 6396 01 - Graduate Research I
PHYS 1401 05 - General Physics I
PHYS 1402 AB - General Physics II
PHYS 1401 01B - General Physics I
PHYS 3306 02 - Intro to Biophysics
PHYS 1402 01B - General Physics II
PHYS 3306 01I - Intro to Biophysics
PHYS 2425 02 - Phys Sci & Engineers I
PHYS 1401 AB - General Physics I
Research
The Lipoprotein group (N.Guevara, J.Guevara) is focusing on structural domains of apolipoprotein B100 (apo B100), the major protein of Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) particles. LDL cholesterol is known as “bad cholesterol”, and apo B100 is believed to serve mostly as a vehicle for lipid transportation in plasma, and receptor-mediated intracellular delivery. LDL has been shown to bind various nucleic acids, and deliver those to different cell types in culture (1,2). The structural basis for this phenomenon is yet to be elucidated. Our group is working on characterization of several regions of apo B100 that have sequence similarity to known DNA-binding proteins. We have confirmed experimentally that two of the six potential DNA-binding regions of apo B100 have significant DNA-binding capacity, and one of them is capable of delivering fluorescently labeled DNA to the cells.