Support for the 2018 Penn State Bioinorganic Workshop

Project: Research project

Project Details

Description

Amie K. Boal, co-PI, Dept. of Chemistry, Penn State UniversityJ. Martin Bollinger, Jr., co-PI, Dept. of Chemistry, Penn State UniversitySquire J. Booker, co-PI, Dept. of Chemistry, Penn State UniversityJoseph A. Cotruvo, Jr. co-PI, Dept. of Chemistry, Penn State UniversityJohn H. Golbeck, co-PI, Dept. of Biochem. and Mol. Biol, Penn State UniversityCarsten Krebs, co-PI, Dept. of Chemistry, Penn State UniversityAlexey Silakov co-PI, Dept. of Chemistry, Penn State UniversityResearch in the area of bioinorganic chemistry aims at a detailed understanding of the formation, function, and regulation of the many metallocofactors found in Nature, as well as the identification of novel metallocofactors. Many metalloenzymes are of particular importance to the mission of the Department of Energy, because these 'enzymes and their affiliated co-factors' are 'involved in biological proton and nitrogen reduction, carbon-carbon bond formation, and carbon dioxide assimilation and reduction' and because such metalloenzyme 'studies will lead to the identification of principles that will, for example, provide a basis for the design and synthesis of highly selective and efficient bioinspired catalysts'.Research in bioinorganic chemistry is diverse and includes a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, chemical biology, bioinformatics, analytical chemistry, physical, and theoretical chemistry. Many different experimental techniques (e.g. reaction kinetics, a wide variety of spectroscopic techniques, X-ray crystallography, and mass spectrometry) and theoretical methods (e.g. electronic structure calculations and bioinformatics methods) are combined in this area of research to understand metalloenzyme catalysis.Because the methods used in bioinorganic chemistry are so diverse and require sophisticated technical expertise, it is particularly important that students and postdocs receive broad training. The large bioinorganic community at the Pennsylvaina State University spearheads such training efforts by offering biennial bioinorganic workshops with world-wide attendance that feature (i) talks by faculty experts on various experimental methods, (ii) hands-on training in small groups of typically 6 participants in a wide variety of methods, and (iii) presentation of the participants' research via poster sessions and talks.After a smaller trial workshop in 2010, the bioinorganic group hosted large-scale workshops biennially since 2012 for up to ~160 participants. These workshops consisted of ~16 faculty talks on various methods, hands-on training in ~20 methods, poster sessions, and 10-12 talks by participants on their research. These workshops are an important contribution to the training of the next generation of bioinorganic chemists and they will set the stage for future discoveries in this field. These workshops enable and facilitate 'increased integration of physical science and computational tools to probe structural, functional and mechanistic properties of enzymes, enzyme systems, and energy-relevant biological reactions', as stated in the funding announcement by the Department of Energy.The 2018 workshop, for which we request support, will be similar in scope to the previous workshops. It will feature talks by faculty on their area of specialty, hands-on training in small groups in ~20 different methods, poster sessions, and ~10 talks by students and postdocs on their research. As in 2014, the event will be coupled to the Frontiers in Metallobiochemistry symposium (hosted every four years by the Penn State bioinorganic group), at which the workshop participants will contribute ~10 talks by students and postdocs on their research
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date9/15/179/14/18

Funding

  • Basic Energy Sciences: $15,000.00

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