Mechanistic Studies on Dinuclear Hydrolytic Catalysts

Richard Holz博士，犹他州立大学化学系，由化学系无机、生物无机和有机金属化学项目支持，研究双核金属离子团催化的水解反应。具体来说，Holz博士将利用各种光谱和物理表征技术（其中包括时间分辨晶体学）阐明由AAP（一种氨基肽酶）与同源和异双核金属团簇催化的这些反应的途径。所选择的特定系统将作为“模型”系统和“真实”系统；这种二元性代表了一种真正的最先进的方法。这项工作的意义在于了解二核和三核金属氢化酶如何水解DNA、RNA、磷脂和多肽等高度相关的生物分子。该研究还将提供一个答案，为什么镍和铜aap酶相对于锌aap酶是过度活跃的。这将引起生物和医学界的兴趣。研究生和博士后将在生物无机化学方面接受良好的培训。

Dr. Richard Holz, Department of Chemistry, Utah State University is supported by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division for an investigation of hydrolytic reactions catalyzed by dinuclear metal ion clusters. Specifically, Dr. Holz will elucidate the pathways of these reactions which are catalyzed by AAP (an aminopeptidase enzyme) with homo- and hetero-dinuclear metal clusters using a variety of spectroscopic and physical characterization techniques among which is time-resolved crystallography. The particular system chosen will serve both as a 'model" system and as a "real" system; this duality represents a truly state-of-the-art approach.The significance of this work is to gain an understanding of how di- and tri-nuclear metallohydrogenase enzymes hydrolyze such highly relevant biological molecules as DNA, RNA, phospholipids and polypeptides. The study will also provide an answer as to why the nickel- and copper-AAP enzymes are hyperactive relative to the zinc-AAP enzyme. This will be of interest to the biological and medical community. Graduate students and post-doctoral associates will receive an excellent training in bioinorganic chemistry.