Tags: Inorganic Seminar


Recent Developments in High-Affinity CO Scavengers as Potential Therapeutics for CO Poisoning

Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is the leading cause of non-drug-related poisoning in humans, resulting in an estimated 50,000-100,000 emergency room visits and 1,500-2,000 deaths annually in the United States alone.1 Current treatment options are limited to oxygen administration via normobaric oxygen therapy (NBOT) or hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), but no point-of-care antidote is available.1 This talk will focus on recent developments in…


Studies of Heme Enzyme PrnB in Pyrrolnitrin Biosynthesis

Pyrrolnitrin (PRN) is a bioactive halometabolite produced from L-tryptophan (L-Trp) through a four-enzyme biosynthetic pathway involving PrnA, PrnB, PrnC, and PrnD. PrnB catalyzes an oxidative ring rearrangement but remains mechanistically unresolved due to the failure to reconstitute activity in vitro. To address this, we examined two PrnB homologs (PsPrnB and FbPrnB) and characterized the binding conformation and affinities of PrnB with two…


Structural Investigation of Substrate Binding and Oxygen Addition in Thiol Dioxygenases

Thiol dioxygenases (TDOs) are a family of unique non-heme iron-dependent metalloenzymes that catalyze the addition of both atoms of molecular oxygen to the thiol groups of their substrates.1 Previously characterized members have shown several important roles in thiol and oxygen homeostasis among bacteria, mammals, and plants.2 These enzymes belong to the cupin enzyme superfamily, which is characterized by a β-barrel fold and has two semi…


Achieving Peroxidase-like Kinetics and ROS Production with Single-atom Iron Nanozymes

Antioxidant enzymes such as peroxidase, catalase, and superoxide dismutase perform the critical role of converting reactive oxygen species (ROS) like hydrogen peroxide and superoxide into benign molecules such as water and dioxygen. However, some modern cancer treatments seek to take advantage of the destructive effects of ROS to induce cell death in tumor cells1. Native peroxidases are typically cytoprotective, but their ability to rapidly and…


Exploring and Engineering Iron Enzymes

From respiration to nitrogen fixation, iron-containing enzymes catalyze some of the most critical biological processes. These enzymes exploit their complex protein architecture to manipulate the chemical properties of their iron center and execute a diverse array of biochemical reactions. The Bhagi-Damodaran lab is dedicated to elucidating the structural and mechanistic foundations of iron enzyme function and developing small-molecule discovery…


Mechanistic Insights into Acetyl CoA Synthase from Nickel-Substituted Azurin

CO dehydrogenase (CODH) and Acetyl CoA synthase (ACS) belong to the ancient Wood-Ljungdhal pathway, widely speculated to have been the first metabolic pathway to develop in the earliest lifeforms. Early life forms were strictly anaerobic and this metabolic pathway allowed those organisms to grow solely on CO and CO2. CODH first catalyzes the reversible reduction of CO2 to CO. ACS then catalyzes C-C bond formation between CO and CH3 to form an…


R. B. King Lecture: Enabling Molecular Quantum Information Science with Electron Spins

Quantum technologies based on molecular electron spin coherence afford unique potential in miniaturization, spatial localization, and tunability through synthetic chemistry and biomolecular integration. However, many applications within molecular quantum information science hinge on slowing down spin relaxation, a process that effectively leaks quantum information into the environment. Additionally, applications such as quantum sensing with…


Investigating Heme Superoxo and Peroxo Mediated Pathways of Heme Enzymes Using Functional Synthetic Mimics

Heme enzymes mediate a plethora of paramount reaction pathways in a wide variety of organisms, including humans, wherein dioxygen activating heme enzymes are prevalent.[1, 2] Interestingly, a number of pivotal geometric and electronic parameters in concert fine-tune such heme centers for their specialized reactivities, which strongly modulate the reactivity properties of their relevant reaction intermediates. Dioxygen activating heme enzymes…


Fe-Containing Enzymes and ATP-Grasp Enzymes for the Biosynthesis of Bioactive Natural Products

Natural products (NPs) are a proven and paramount source of novel drug leads due to their structural complexity and diverse bioactivities. This complexity arises from unique serial enzymatic transformations. In my talk, I will discuss the biochemical and structural characterization of several key enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of various natural products. Highlights will include the exploration of a nonheme diiron monooxygenase involved in…


From Point Source CO2 Capture to Grid-Scale H2 Storage – The Promise and Science of the Ultramicroporous Adsorbent Aluminum Formate (ALF)

Gas storage and separations are vitally important to many areas of society. Though perhaps easy to appreciate the utility of storing gasses, separating one from another is just as significant. In fact, such processes are conservatively responsible for up to hundreds of billions of dollars of global commerce each year. Significant separations include isolating O2 and noble gasses from air, as well as isolating short chain hydrocarbons from one…
Subscribe to Inorganic Seminar