Professor Phillips received his B.S. degree in 1974 and his Ph.D. degree in 1979 from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Laboratory of Neurochemistry at the National Institute of Mental Health from 1980 to 1982. He was then a Senior Staff Fellow in the Laboratory of Chemistry at the National Institute of Arthritis, Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases before joining the faculty in 1985. His research interests are in bio-organic and physical organic chemistry.
Our studies of enzymatic reaction mechanisms employ a mixture of synthesis and kinetic-measurements. We synthesize a series of substrates and analogues designed to test mechanistic hypotheses, and perform kinetic measurements to evaluate the consequences of structural variation. Using this approach, we have provided the first experimental evidence for tautomeric indolenine intermediates in the reaction mechanisms of tryptophan indole-lyase and tryptophan synthase. We have synthesized novel mechanism-based inhibitors of kyureninase, which have potential as a new class of neuroactive drugs. Our group has also been investigating the utility of enzymes as synthetic catalysts. We have been using a thermophilic alcohol dehydrogenase to prepare optically active alcohols. Remarkably, we have found that the preferred configuration of the 2-butanol produced from 2-butanone reverses with temperature.
R.S. Phillips, C. Zheng, V.T. Pham, F.A.C. Andrade and M.A.C. Andrade, "Effects of Temperature on Stereochemistry of Enzymatic Reactions", Biocatalysis 1994, 10, 77.
H. Chen, P. Gollnick and R.S. Phillips, "Site-directed Mutagenesis of His343 Ala in Citobacter freundii Tyrosine Phenol-lyase: Effects on the Kinetic Mechanism and Rate-determining Step", Eur. J. Biochem 1995, 229, 540.