I dedicate this web page to my biochemistry mentor, Professor Gerald D. Fasman, where I spent the happiest time of my life doing research as a Postdoctoral Fellow in his laboratory in the Graduate Department of Biochemistry at Brandeis University (1970-1977). My background was in experimental physical chemistry in Professor Harold A. Scheraga's lab at Cornell. My first research project in Gerry's lab was CD studies of hydroxypropylglutamine-leucine copolymers. After finding that Leucine was a strong helix former experimentally, I found that it also occurred with greater frequency in 15 proteins of known X-ray structure. From this we deduced the Chou-Fasman conformational parameters which became one of the most widely used predictive methods for protein secondary structure (Science Citation Classic). Even though I was not a theoretician and didn't know computer programming, Gerry allowed me the freedom to explore my ideas and encouraged me all the way. Hence I was able to plunge into the protein problem as a child learning to read the alphabet and the language of life. On making a web page for May 28 to honor Gerry's 78th birthday, I made web links to events and notable people born on this day. However, after Gerry's retirement, Brandeis University took off his home page. Since there is not another web page on him, I've compiled this one, so others will remember the wonderful contributions he made to the conformational studies of biopolymers and proteins. Postscript: I was saddened to receive an email from Michael Fasman (December 17, 2003) informing me that his Dad had died in the morning. Gerry had thanked me for the web pages I did on his birthday in an email (June 12, 2003), but I was too busy to reply. When biochemists call Chou & Fasman as the pioneers in protein structural prediction, I think of the Wright Brothers pioneering first flight exactly 100 years ago. When I left Gerry's Lab at Brandeis after seven years of joyous work, he hugged me praising our collaboration "You're like my brother!" We both had tears in our eyes. Now, Gerry has flown from this earth as did the Wright Brothers' Flyer. Here's a poem in his memory: Flight on the 17th

Gerald David Fasman
Rosenfield Professor of Biochemistry, 1971-1996
Emeritus Professor, Brandeis University, 1996-
Born: Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, May 28, 1925
Education: University of Alberta, B.S. 1948, CalTech, Ph.D. 1952
Research: Conformational studies of biopolymers, Alzheimer's disease

from American Men & Women of Science 21st Ed., Thomson/Gale (2003), p. 1038

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General News & Reviews:

Gerald D. Fasman of Newton, Massachusetts passed on
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
(Boston Globe, Obituaries, December 18, 2003)

Gerald D. Fasman elected to National Academy of Sciences
Nine Women Among 60 Scientists Elected To NAS
(By Neeraja Sankaran, The Scientist, June 13, 1994)

History of the Biophysical Society (Founded 1956)
(Gerald D. Fasman, Council Member 1977-1980)

Investigations into Protein Structure: Circular Dichroism Studies
Henry A. Havel, Robert S. Chao, Royal J. Haskel, and Thomas J. Thamann
Chemistry Dept., St. Edward's University, Austin, TX
("The pioneering work of Norma Greenfield & Gerald D. Fasman
in the late 1960's made the use of CD a standard practice")

Editorial Reviews: Circular Dichroism and the Conformational Analysis of Biomolecules
("Excellent & very timely... It will undoubtedly become a standard reference for
the application of Circular Dichroism to biomolecules.")

Critical Reviews in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, Professor Emeritus, Brandeis University)

Biochemistry Books Edited by Gerald D. Fasman:

11 Books Edited by G. D. Fasman at Amazon.com

15 Books Edited by G. D. Fasman at Barnes & Noble

Circular Dichroism and the Conformational Analysis of Biomolecules (The Language of Science)
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, Plenum Publishing Corp., 1996)

Practical Handbook of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, CRC Press, 1989)

Prediction of Protein Structure and the Principles of Protein Conformation
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, Plenum Publishing Corp, 1989)

CRC Handbook of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology: Cumulative Index
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, CRC Press, 3rd Edition, 1977)

Handbook of Biochemistry: Section A Proteins, Volume II
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, CRC Press, 3rd Edition, 1976)

Handbook of Biochemistry: Section A Proteins, Volume I
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, CRC Press, 3rd Edition, 1976)

Handbook of Biochemistry: Section D Physical Chemical Data, Volume I
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, CRC Press, 3rd Edition, 1976)

Handbook of Biochemistry: Section D Physical Chemical Data, Volume II
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, CRC Press, 3rd Edition, 1976)

Handbook of Biochemistry: Section B Nucleic Acids, Volume II
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, CRC Press, 3rd Edition, 1976)

Handbook of Biochemistry: Section C Lipids Carbohydrates & Steroids, Volume l
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, CRC Press, 3rd Edition, 1975)

Subunits in Biological Systems
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman & S. N. Timasheff, Marcel Dekker, 1975)

Fine structure of proteins and nucleic acids
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, Marcel Dekker, 1970)

Structure and Stability of Biological Macromolecules
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman & S. N. Timasheff, Marcel Dekker, 1969)

Poly-Alpha-Amino Acids: Protein Models for Conformational Studies
(Edited by Gerald D. Fasman, Marcel Dekker, 1967)

Web Pages Citing Chou-Fasman Protein Structure Prediction Methods:

Chou-Fasman Parameters
[Amino Acid Information by Ronald C. Beavis, Rockefeller University]

Chou-Fasman Secondary Structure Prediction
[Program written by William R. Pearson, University of Virginia]

Chou-Fasman Algorithm [Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, India]
["The Chou-Fasman algorithm for the prediction of protein secondary structure
is one of the most widely used predictive schemes"]

QSAR Studies of Conformational Parameters for Alpha-helix/Beta-sheet,
and Reverse Turn Residues and Residue Frequencies in Loops
By Hanqing Wu, Dept. of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin
[Reference to Chou & Fasman "Empirical Predictions of Protein Conformation",
Ann. Rev. Biochem., 47, 251-276 (1978)]

Design and Implementation of a Neural Network For the
Evaluation of Protein Secondary Structure Prediction
Using the DSSP and Chou-Fasman Algorithms
By Junger Tang, Biomolecular Engineering Research Center, Boston University (Aug. 2, 1995)
["A statistical analysis of the results suggests that the neural network achieved a greater
accuracy using the predictions of the Chou-Fasman algorithm than those of the DSSP algorithm."]

Calculating the Secrets of Life: Contributions of the Mathematical Sciences
to Molecular Biology (1995) Chapter 9— Folding the Sheets:
Using Computational Methods to Predict the Structure of Proteins
By Fred E. Cohen, University of California, San Francisco
["In 1974, a landmark paper on protein secondary structure prediction
was published by Chou and Fasman (1974)."]

The Protein Structure Database (PSdb)
(David W. Deerfield II & Joe Geigel, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center,
4400 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
[Reference to Chou & Fasman "B-Turns in Proteins",
J. Mol. Biol., 115, pp. 135-175 (1977)]

Relational Concepts and the Fourier Transform: an Empirical Study
Fifth Annual Conf. on Computational Learning Theory, pages 62-70, 1992
Eduardo Pérez, Universidad Aut'onoma de Madrid, E.T.S. Informatica
& Larry Rendell, University of Illinois, Dept. of Computer Science & Beckman Institute
[Reference to Chou & Fasman "Prediction of Protein Conformation"
Biochemistry, 13, 222-245 (1974)]

Genomics & Proteomics: Prediction of Secondary Structure
Slide 61 showing the 6 Chou-Fasman rules for prediction
By C. Stan Tsai, Chemistry Dept., Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
[Reference to Chou & Fasman "Prediction of Secondary Structure"
Advances in Enzymology 47, 45-148 (1978)]

Responses to Inquiry on the status & methods of protein structure prediction
by Shubin Liu, Dept. of Chemistry, University of North Carolina (Feb. 17, 1995)
[Response from J. Mike Sauder: "The classic reference is Chou and Fasman...
Chou & Fasman (1974) Biochemistry 13:211
Chou & Fasman (1978) Advances in Enzymology 47:45-148
I also found a reference to a book by Fasman that you might find very helpful:
Fasman (1989) "Prediction of Protein Structure and Principles of Protein Conformation"]

Biochemistry Papers Published by Chou & Fasman
[National Library of Medicine Index of papers #3-18 done in Fasman's Lab at Brandeis]

PYChou & GDFasman "Prediction of protein conformation"
Biochemistry. 1974 Jan 15; 13(2): 222-245
[224 Citations to paper in PubMed— indexed for MEDLINE]

PYChou & GDFasman "Prediction of protein conformation"
Biochemistry. 1974 Jan 15; 13(2): 222-245
[Citations to paper with web link in PubMed Central]

"Conservation of chain reversal regions in proteins" by PY Chou and GD Fasman
Biophysical Journal, Vol 26, 385-399 (1979)
[Abstract: Chain reversal regions play an essential role in keeping the active structural
domains in hormones and enzymes intact for their specific biological function.]

"Prediction of beta-turns" by PY Chou and GD Fasman
Biophysical Journal, Vol 26, 367-373 (1979)
[Abstract of article plus web links to 14 citations by others.]

This Week's Citation Classic
P. Y. Chou & G. D. Fasman,
"Prediction of Protein Conformation"
Biochemistry, 13:222-245, 1974
Gerald D. Fasman, Current Contents, Vol 30, #32, 21 (Aug. 10, 1987)
[Science Citation Index indicates that this paper has been cited in
over 1,160 publications, making it the most-cited paper for this journal.]