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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: September 18, 2009
Dr. Adrian Arakaki, who joined the School of Biology in 2006 as a member of Biology Professor Jeffrey Skolnick's research group was a very important researcher in the Center for the Study of Systems Biology.
Dr. Arakaki was deeply involved in the prediction of protein structure and function from sequence. He developed the highly accurate EFFICaZ enzyme function inference method and formulated techniques for the inference of protein function from protein structure and the prediction of protein-protein interactions. He also made highly significant contributions to the understanding of the origin and completeness of protein structure space and the origin of the interrelationships of protein structures. He developed the CoMet approach to cancer metabolomics that holds considerable promise for the computational prediction of metabolites with therapeutic properties.
"Dr. Arakaki was an exceptionally talented scientist who also cared very deeply for people and touched the lives of all who knew him," Skolnick said. "He was highly creative and talented and had a career marked by unusual promise who will be sorely missed".
"He was a fearless researcher with a keen mind who was known for asking incisive and penetrating questions. Not only did he do world class research but he stimulated his colleagues to do outstanding work as well," Skolnick said.
In addition to his research efforts, he played a key role in the creation of the Center for the Study of Systems Biology and was responsible for leading Cancer theme of the Center. He had collaborators all over the world and was embarking on a new caner metabolomics initiative at the time of his death.
A memorial service was held at St. Andrews United Methodist Church on September 12, 2009. He is survived by his wife Susana, and three young sons, Matias, Nicolas and Tomas.
In lieu of flowers and to assist the family, donations can be made through http://sites.google.com/site/adriansfamilyorg/ which will take you to a paypal account arakaki.family.benefit.fund@gmail.com
