Northwestern Events Calendar

Sep
23
2019

CLP Seminar: Michael Burkart | Univ of CA, San Diego

When: Monday, September 23, 2019
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM CT

Where: Pancoe-NSUHS Life Sciences Pavilion, Auditorium, 2200 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208 map it

Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students

Cost: Free

Contact: Penelope Johnson   (847) 467-7464

Group: Chemistry of Life Processes Institute

Category: Academic

Description:

Chemical biology of carrier protein-dependent metabolism
Natural products produced from fatty acid synthase (FAS) and polyketide synthase (PKS) pathways include both primary and secondary metabolites. Each of these biosyntheses are mediated by the acyl carrier protein (ACP), a small four-helix bundle protein that stabilizes and selectively delivers intermediates to successive enzymes within each pathway. Recent studies have highlighted the role of protein•protein interactions between the ACP and pathway enzymes that serve to guide and organize timing and specificity, and we recently developed tools for crosslinking the ACP to specific enzymes in order to trap and visualize these unique binding events. Here we report our newest findings that have been used to elucidate mechanism and specificity within these pathways. In addition, we have developed new caged crosslinkers that allow a two-step, two-site selective crosslinking for the trapping of ACP interactions within megasynthases. Together these tools allow the visualization of intermediate states using structural biology.

Bio: Mike Burkart grew up in Texas and received a B.A. in chemistry from Rice University in 1994 and a PhD from the Scripps Research Institute in 1999. After an NIH postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, he initiated his own research group at the University of California, San Diego in 2002. He is currently a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UC San Diego and Associate Director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology (Cal-CAB). His research includes natural product synthesis, biosynthesis, and metabolic engineering.

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