Biological Chemistry Seminar

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Catherine Denning will be presenting this week's seminar, titled Investigating the Mechanism of Chemical Denaturation by Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET).

Abstract: Chemical denaturation is a common technique in biochemistry to study the dynamics and stability of proteins. Though use of chemical denaturants is fairly routine, there is no consensus among the biochemistry field for how denaturation occurs. The dominating belief is that chemical denaturants, such as urea or guanidinium chloride (GdmCl), work by affecting the solvent accessible surface area (SASA) of the protein that causes it to break down.1 Recently, due to technology advances, it has been shown through computational studies that a dry molten globular (DMG) state is in rapid equilibrium with the native state of the protein when a denaturant is applied to the system.1 This suggests that chemical denaturants actually work via a two-step process. In his article “ Kinetic evidence for a two-stage mechanism of protein denaturation by guanidinium chloride”, Jha uses fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) as well as other techniques to confirm results previously found from computational studies. This seminar will focus on the use of FRET to study the proposed two-step mechanism of denaturation by GdmCl.

References:

1. Jha, S.A.; Marqusee, S. Kinetic evidence for a two-stage mechanism of protein denaturation by guanidinium chloride.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2014, 111, 4856-4861.

Course Instructor: Dr. Anne-Frances Miller

 

Date:
-
Location:
CP-201

Biological Chemistry Seminar

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Xiaojia Ren will be presenting a revised version of last week's seminar--Does doxorubicin-induced TNF alpha elevation cause chemobrain?

Abstract:Doxorubicin is an anti-cancer drug, mainly being used to tread solid tumor and leukimia. It can produce reactive oxygen species by the nature of its quinone structure which can be converted to semiquinone and get back to quinone with superoxide anion producing. Dox induced ROS will cause oxidative stress in plasma and further lead to lipidperoxidation and elevation of TNF alpha, which can across BBB to activate glia in brain to make more TNF alpha, causing mitochodria damage and leading to apoptosis and finally leading to cognitive impairment. We hyposisize that TNF alpha plays an important role in potential mechanism for chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (CICI) that occurs with ROS producing anticancer drug using Doxorubicin as an example.

In this way to build reasonable prevention and improve quality of life of cancer patients by outlining the potential mechanisms for anticancer drug induced CICI.

 

Course Instructor: Dr. Anne-Frances Miller

 

Date:
-
Location:
CP-114B

Biological Chemistry Seminar

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No Cumulative Exam Review

Xiaojia Ren will be presenting a seminar titled Does doxorubicin-induced TNF alpha elevation cause chemobrain?

Abstract:Doxorubicin is an anti-cancer drug, mainly being used to tread solid tumor and leukimia. It can produce reactive oxygen species by the nature of its quinone structure which can be converted to semiquinone and get back to quinone with superoxide anion producing. Dox induced ROS will cause oxidative stress in plasma and further lead to lipidperoxidation and elevation of TNF alpha, which can across BBB to activate glia in brain to make more TNF alpha, causing mitochodria damage and leading to apoptosis and finally leading to cognitive impairment. We hyposisize that TNF alpha plays an important role in potential mechanism for chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (CICI) that occurs with ROS producing anticancer drug using Doxorubicin as an example.

In this way to build reasonable prevention and improve quality of life of cancer patients by outlining the potential mechanisms for anticancer drug induced CICI.

 

Course Instructor: Dr. Anne-Frances Miller

 

Date:
-
Location:
CP-201

Biological Chemistry Seminar

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Note the change in time, date, and location.



Hope Cook will be presenting a seminar titled The pH Dependence of Photosystem II Oxygen-Evolving Complex Assembly.

Abstract: Photosystem II (PSII) research has gained interest in recent years due to the need for energy production. However the mechanisms of photosystem II photoassembly and water oxidation are not well understood. Therefore the main goal of my research was to understand photoassembly better by determining the pH dependence of oxygen evolving complex (OEC) assembly. These experiments could help to gain a better understanding of D1 (a subunit of photosystem II) degradation and PSII repair as well as determine the amino acid residues involved in the process. However, due to several issues with photoassembly there were some problems had to be addressed in order to perform this experiment. Therefore, we first had to optimize the process for depleting the cofactors from PSII (known as apo-BBY (PSII enriched particles) preparation) and photoassembly of PSII. This process took up most of my time in the lab so the pH dependence experiment was not fully completed and conclusions cannot be made based on the data obtained. Two side projects included in this research, was to understand the temperature dependence of water oxidation and to study non-converntional redox mediators in order to enhance the rate of oxygen-evolution. The combined data from all the experiments performed will lead to a better understanding of photosystem II as well as lead to better ways of studying photosystem II.

Course Instructor: Dr. Anne-Frances Miller

 

Date:
-
Location:
CP-114C
Event Series:
ChemNews
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