Ramona Pufan

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About

Ramona Pufan is a structural biologist whose work has centered on the foundational principles of structural genomics, with a particular focus on elucidating the three-dimensional architectures of proteins from minimal genomes. Her key research areas include the structural characterization of conserved hypothetical proteins and the functional inference derived from these atomic-level models. Pufan’s most notable contribution is her involvement in the Berkeley Structural Genomics Center’s (BSGC) systematic effort to determine the crystal structures of proteins from the human and animal pathogens *Mycoplasma pneumoniae* and *M. genitalium*. Her work on the conserved hypothetical protein MPN330 (GI: 1674200) from *M. pneumoniae*, published in 2004, is a prime example of this approach, demonstrating how structural determination can lead to the inference of biological function for previously uncharacterized proteins. While her most-cited paper has garnered 4 citations, its significance lies in its role within the broader BSGC initiative, which pioneered high-throughput structural genomics to bridge the gap between sequence and function. Pufan’s research has contributed to a deeper understanding of the molecular machinery of these pathogens, offering potential avenues for therapeutic intervention.