Profile
Dr. Yousef holds a PhD in molecular biophysics from Florida State University and came to WCM-Q from Southern Illinois University Edwards, an institution he joined in 2011 and where he was an associate professor of physics.
He is an experienced educator in teaching physics courses tailored to meet the needs of health science, pre-professional and biomedical physics programs.
Dr. Yousef's areas of research are molecular and structural biophysics. More specifically, he elucidates and analyzes the 3D structure of proteins and protein/DNA. In his research, he uses X-ray crystallography, molecular biology, biochemistry, and computational methods. His main scholarship goal is to build an externally funded, rigorous research program, involving students. Dr. Yousef also has a master of science degree in Healthcare Informatics from Southern Illinois University. He currently pursues several lines of inquiry related to Big Data, environmental biophysics and medicine.
Selected Publications
- Yousef MS, Baase WA, Matthews BW. Use of sequence duplication to engineer a ligand-triggered, long-distance molecular switch in T4 lysozyme. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Aug 10;101(32):11583-6.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15286283/
- Yousef MS, Matthews BW. Structural basis of Prospero-DNA interaction: implications for transcription regulation in developing cells. Structure. 2005 Apr;13(4):601-7.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15837198/
- Yousef MS, Guan L. A 3D structure model of the melibiose permease of Escherichia coli represents a distinctive fold for Na+ symporters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2009 Sep 8;106(36):15291-6.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19706416/
- Ethayathulla AS, Yousef MS, Amin A, Leblanc G, Kaback HR, Guan L. Structure-based mechanism for Na(+)/melibiose symport by MelB. Nat Commun. 2014;5:3009.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24389923/
- Kramer M, Halleran D, Rahman M, Iqbal M, Anwar MI, Sabet S, Ackad E, Yousef MS. Comparative molecular dynamics simulation of Hepatitis C Virus NS3/4A protease (Genotypes 1b, 3a and 4b) predicts conformational instability of the catalytic triad in drug resistant strains. PLoS One. 2014;9(8):e104425.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25111232/
- Hamad HA, Thurston J, Teague T, Ackad E, Yousef MS. The NS4A Cofactor Dependent Enhancement of HCV NS3 Protease Activity Correlates with a 4D Geometrical Measure of the Catalytic Triad Region. PLoS One. 2016;11(12):e0168002.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27936126/
- Biggers L, Elhabashy H, Ackad E, Yousef MS. Molecular dynamics simulations of an engineered T4 lysozyme exclude helix to sheet transition, and provide insights into long distance, intra-protein switchable motion. Protein Sci. 2020 Feb;29(2):542-54.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31702853/
Full list of publications