Welcome

Metalloproteins combine the powerful reactivity of a transition metal with the exquisite control conferred by a protein scaffold to catalyze some of Nature’s most difficult chemical transformations. Estimated to account for up to 50-percent of the proteome1, metalloproteins catalyze reactions that are essential to life and reactions that offer adaptive advantages to organisms for survival in changing ecosystems.

As Nature has spent millions of years evolving metalloproteins to carry out these challenging feats, mastering a molecular understanding of metalloprotein reactivity is not trivial. Luckily, in our laboratory,  we have an extensive toolbox of biochemical and structural techniques to study metalloproteins. Our goals are to:

     ** investigate metalloproteins that have eluded biochemical characterization

    ** uncover structure–function relationships in different enzyme classes

    ** and define trends to leverage powerful (and existing) metalloprotein chemistry

Check our our protein structures featured above (PDB: 7SZH2, 7TXO3, 8FJD4, and 8SY85).

1. Bowman, S. E.; Bridwell-Rabb, J.; Drennan, C. L., Metalloprotein Crystallography: More than a Structure. Acc Chem Res 2016, 49 (4), 695-702.
2. Liu, J.; Tian, J.; Perry, C.; Lukowski, A. L.; Doukov, T. I.; Narayan, A. R. H.; Bridwell-Rabb, J., Design principles for site-selective hydroxylation by a Rieske oxygenase. Nat Commun 2022, 13 (1), 255.
3. Li, B.; Jo, M.; Liu, J.; Tian, J.; Canfield, R.; Bridwell-Rabb, J., Structural and mechanistic basis for redox sensing by the cyanobacterial transcription regulator RexT. Commun Biol 2022, 5 (1), 275.
4. Jo, M.; Knapp, M.; Boggs, D. G.; Brimberry, M.; Donnan, P. H.; Bridwell-Rabb, J., A structure-function analysis of chlorophyllase reveals a mechanism for activity regulation dependent on disulfide bonds. J Biol Chem 2023, 299 (3), 102958.
5. Tian, J.; Boggs, D. G.; Donnan, P. H.; Barroso, G. T.; Garcia, A. A.; Dowling, D. P.; Buss, J. A.; Bridwell-Rabb, J. The NADH recycling enzymes TsaC and TsaD regenerate reducing equivalents for Rieske oxygenase chemistry. J Biol Chem 2023, 299 (10), 105222.