Presidential Young Investigator Award: Metal Ion Regulationof Gene Expression

总统青年研究员计划下的这个奖项 为生物无机领域的研究提供支持 化学.研究项目的总主题是 金属离子在生物系统中的作用。研究 将在两个方面进行：探索结构和 金属在新型基因调控中的功能作用 金属蛋白和发展氧化学 活化含有生物配体的金属络合物。的 直接靶点是金属蛋白， 重金属的细胞代谢，特别是那些 调控基因表达或介导重金属 解毒特别是，将注意 金属调节蛋白，作为金属响应 分子开关，感应金属离子浓度的变化 调节相关基因的表达。第二 金属-核苷酸络合物对氧的活化 将被调查。特别值得注意的是， ADP和Fe（II）的混合物通过该途径促进脂质过氧化 通过分子氧。铁核苷酸复合物将被分离 并进行了表征， 并将探索它们作为环氧化催化剂的效用。

This award under the Presidential Young Investigator Program provides support for research in the area of bioinorganic chemistry. The general topic of the research project is the roles which metal ions play in biological systems. Research will be pursued on two fronts: exploring the structural and functional roles of metals in novel gene regulatory metalloproteins and developing the chemistry of oxygen activating metal complexes containing biological ligands. The immediate targets are metalloproteins that play key roles in cellular metabolism of heavy metals, particularly those regulating gene expression or mediating heavy metal detoxification. In particular, attention will be given to metalloregulatory proteins which act as metal-responsive molecular switches, sensing changes in metal ion concentrations and adjusting the expression of relevant genes. On the second front the activation of oxygen by metal-nucleotide complexes will be investigated. Of particular interest is the mechanism by which mixtures of ADP and Fe(II) promote lipid peroxidation by molecular oxygen. Iron nucleotide complexes will be isolated and characterized, and the mechanism of activation of oxygen and their utility as epoxidation catalysts will be explored.