This research project stems from the desire to explore and eventually harness the enzymatic mechanism of 4-(hydroxymethyl)-2-furan-
carboxaldehyde-phosphate synthase (MfnB). The enzyme of interest, MfnB, is found most prominently in methanogens and has the ability to catalyze five or more separate chemical transformations in a single active site. This singular enzyme takes two molecules of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate to create a furan-containing…
Organic, hybrid, and 2D materials have attracted interest for electronic applications due to their potential for use in low-cost, large-area, flexible electronic devices. Here we will report on recent developments pertaining to surface modifiers and dopants that could impact the charge injection/collection/transport processes in organic light emitting diodes, organic field effect transistors, and photovoltaic devices. In particular, we will…
Hydrogen bonding is one of the most well-characterized non-covalent interactions. Analogous to hydrogen bonding, halogen bonding has become an important focus of study, notably in supramolecular chemistry. The geometric specificity of hydrogen and halogen bonding is often exploited to build crystal frameworks. These two interactions can be used in tandem to created novel organic frameworks. Direct competition occurs…
When the steepest descent pathway following a transition state structure for a given reaction splits in two, the reaction is said to involve a post-transition state bifurcation (PTSB). The presence of a PTSB presents complications for predicting product selectivity, in that a single transition state structure allows direct access to two products without any intervening minima (intermediates). Examples of reactions from organic synthesis and…
Selective reactions with proteins carrying unique chemical reporters in living cells offer a powerful tool to study protein dynamics in their native environment. In this talk, I will discuss our work on the development of tetrazole and strained alkene reagents that allow rapid and site-specific protein labeling both in vitro and in living cells. Our optimization efforts have resulted in the tetrazole reagents with tunable photoactivation…
In the "bottom-up" approach, materials and devices are constructed from molecules capable of assembling themselves by principles/methods of molecular recognition. Although well-defined assemblies can be engineered by exploiting various noncovalent interactions, there are limited methods in the literature regarding the design and analysis of self-guiding molecules for materials application in which there is a strategic integrations of the self-…
Misregulation of kinases is implicated in a myriad of diseases and significant efforts have been put forth towards the development of targeted kinase inhibitors. However, many issues remain with current therapeutic strategies including specificity and inhibitor resistance. As an alternative approach for targeted inhibition, we have developed inhibitors targeting protein-protein interfaces (PPIs) that bind evolutionarily conserved…