Recruitment of a Bioinorganic Chemistry Faculty Member

描述(申请人提供)：金属中心是呼吸、光合作用和碳、氢、氮、硫代谢等基本生命过程中必不可少的和丰富的辅因子，金属蛋白的数量和多样性以及金属中心的生物作用继续有增无减。金属中心在生物学中的功能包括运输氧和一氧化氮等小分子，介导电子传递和自由基的产生，结合和激活各种金属酶中的底物，以及在细胞水平上调节生物过程以响应金属、氧或一氧化氮浓度和氧化应激条件。此外，生命过程对金属离子的依赖在浓度升高时会对细胞产生毒性，这导致了金属因子的储存、运输、输送和生物发生的复杂系统。在过去的30年里，随着从遗传学和微生物学到化学和生物物理学的一系列学科的研究努力为在细胞和分子水平上理解生命过程和人类疾病提供了巨大的潜力，理解金属中心在生物过程和人类健康中的作用和组装方面的进展大大加快。为此，乔治亚大学金属酶中心(CMS)于1986年成立，旨在促进最先进的多学科研究和矿物质生物化学培训。这项建议的目标是招聘一名对矿物生物化学有研究兴趣的终身教职助理教授。该职位将设在化学系，并将利用与金属酶研究中心有关的设施和专门知识。我们预计，新的招聘将加强和扩大目前在生物医学上重要的矿物质生物化学研究领域的专业知识，涉及金属动态平衡、金属毒性、金属分配中心组装和机械金属酶学。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Metal centers are essential and abundant cofactors in fundamental life processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, and carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur metabolism and the number and diversity of metalloproteins and the biological roles for metal centers continue to proliferate unabated. The functons of metal centers in biology include transporting small molecules such as oxygen and nitric oxide, mediating electron transport and radical generation, binding and activating substrates in wide variety of metalloenzymes, and regulating biological processes at the cellular level in response to metal, oxygen or nitric oxide concentrations and oxidative stress conditions. Moreover the reliance of life processes on metal ions that can be toxic to the cell at elevated concentrations has resulted in elaborate systems for the storage, transport, delivery, and biogenesis of metallocofactors. Progress in understanding the roles and assembly of metal centers in biological processes and in human health have greatly accelerated over the past 30 years with research efforts spanning a range of disciplines from genetics and microbiology to chemistry and biophysics that offer enormous potential for understanding life processes and human diseases at both the cellular and molecular levels. To this end, the Center for Metalloenzyme (CMS) at the University of Georgia was founded in 1986 in order to foster state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research and training in metallobiochemistry. The objective of this proposal is to recruit a tenure-track Assistant Professor with research interests in metallobiochemistry. The position would be located in the Chemistry Department and would utilize the facilities and expertise associated with the Center for Metalloenzyme Studies. We anticipate that the new hire will enhance and extend current expertise in biomedically important areas of metallobiochemistry research involving metal homeostasis, metal toxicity, metallocenter assembly, and mechanistic metalloenzymology.