The research carried out in our laboratory is aimed at elucidating the geometric and electronic properties, and thus the reactivity, of metal centers in proteins and cofactors through combined spectroscopic and computational studies of key enzymatic states and synthetic inorganic model complexes. The spectroscopic techniques used in this research include electronic absorption, circular dichroism, magnetic circular dichroism, resonance Raman, and electron paramagnetic resonance. These experimental techniques are complemented by density functional theory and combined quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics electronic structure calculations to develop experimentally validated bonding descriptions. With this combined spectroscopic/computational approach we can selectively probe the geometric and electronic properties of catalytically active metal centers in proteins and model complexes and also explore the natures of catalytic intermediates that are inaccessible to structural studies using X-ray crystallography.

B-12 Dependent Enzymes

Superoxide Dismutases

Cysteine Dioxygenase

NiFeS active-site clusters

We collaborate with various groups on campus and around the country, they can be found here.