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Research Spotlight

To check the latest faculty research updates and publications, please see our website at http://chemistry.asu.edu/news/ResearchUpdate.asp

Earth's First Breaths

Dr. Ariel Anbar and members of his group are involved in two new studies that provide evidence of the presence of O₂ in the atmosphere tens of millions years before the Great Oxidation Event. This event, which began around 2.4 billion years ago, marked the Earth’s irreversible transition to an oxygenated world that can support complex life. The detailed cause of this event is unknown. The two studies were published in the Sept. 28, 2007 issue of Science.

"A Whiff of Oxygen Before the Great Oxidation Event?", A. D. Anbar, Y. Duan, T. W. Lyons, G. L. Arnold, B. Kendall, R. A. Creaser, A. J. Kaufman, G. W. Gordon, C. Scott, J. Garvin, and R. Buick 2007
Science 317, 1903-1906, 2007.

"Late Archean Biospheric Oxygenation and Atmospheric Evolution" ,Alan J. Kaufman, David T. Johnston,1 James Farquhar, Andrew L. Masterson,Timothy W. Lyons Steve Bates, Ariel D. Anbar, Gail L. Arnold, Jessica Garvin, Roger Buick Science Vol. 317. no. 5846, pp. 1900 - 1903, 2007.

LDA “double-counting” Energy Expression

Dr. Don Seo's group has derived an LDA “double-counting” energy expression which led to a more reasonable self-interaction correction in an alternative LDA+U scheme Self-interaction correction in the LDA+U method, PHYSICAL REVIEW B 76, 033102, 2007). The new method is based on the previous work of the Seo group that resulted in a unified theory of magnetic exchange interactions in various magnetic materials (Density functional perturbational orbital theory of spin polarization in electronic systems. I. Formalism, THE JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS 125, 154105, 2006).

Fluorescence Properties and Photophysics of the Sulfoindocyanine Cy3 Linked Covalently to DNA

Dr. Marcia Levitus's lab has undertaken an extensive study of the photophysical and fluorescence properties of Cy3, one of the most popular fluorescent dyes used in biophysical and biological applications. In particular, the team concentrated on elucidating how these properties depend on the local environment of the dye when it is attached to DNA. This work was recently published in J. Phys. Chem. B, the most cited journal in Physical Chemistry.

"Fluorescence Properties and Photophysics of the Sulfoindocyanine Cy3 Linked Covalently to DNA" , Matthew E. Sanborn, Brian K. Connolly, Kaushik Gurunathan, and Marcia Levitus. J. Phys. Chem. B, 111 (37), 11064 -11074, 2007. 

Spatially Addressable Multiprotein Nanoarrays Templated by Aptamer-Tagged DNA Nanoarchitectures

Dr. Hao Yan's lab has constructed, using a self-assembly approach, arrays of multiple proteins onto rigid DNA nano-scaffolds. This work was recently published in J. Am. Chem. Soc.

"Spatially Addressable Multiprotein Nanoarrays Templated by Aptamer-Tagged DNA Nanoarchitectures", Chhabra, R.; Sharma, J.; Ke, Y.; Liu, Y.; Rinker, S.; Lindsay, S.; Yan, H., J. Am. Chem. Soc.129, 10304-10305, 2007.

Mutations in Telomerase Genes Linked to Hereditary Lung Disease

Dr. Julian Chen 's lab together with researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered an important genetic link in a hereditary form of a fatal lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) which affects more than 50,000 Americans annually. The work is published in the March 29, 2007 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the #1 journal in medicine with an impact factor of 51.296.

“Telomerase mutations in families with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis,” M. Armanios, J.L. Chen, W.E. Lawson, J.K. Alder, R.G. Ingersoll, C. Markin, M. Xie, J. Cogan, J.A. Philips III, P.M. Lansdorp, C.W. Greider and J.E. Loyd, New England Journal of Medicine 356 1317-1326, 2007

X-ray Structure of Cerulean GFP: A Tryptophan-Based Chromophore Useful for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging

Dr. Rebekka Wachter and coworkers have recently discovered a pH-dependent conformational switch with optical read-out in an engineered cyan fluorescent protein that bears an indole-based fluorophore. The observed optical modulation may be related to photo-switching events that involve cis-trans isomerization of the spontaneously formed intrinsic chromophore. This work is published as an ACCELERATED PUBLICATION in the September 4 issue of the journal Biochemistry Volume 46, and was featured as a "2007 HOT ARTICLE" by the journal, see link below. http://pubs3.acs.org/acs/journals/hot_article.menu?in_coden=bichaw

"X-ray Structure of Cerulean GFP: A Tryptophan-Based Chromophore Useful for Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging," Malo, G. D., Pouwels, L. J., Wang, M., Weichsel, A., Montfort, W. R., Rizzo, M. A., Piston, D. W., Wachter, R. M., Biochemistry (Accelerated Publication) 46 9865-9873, 2007.

Sweet entanglement: multivalent binding to sugar-coated gp120 is crucial for the anti-HIV activity of cyanovirin

Dr. Giovanna Ghirlanda's lab has recently discovered the molecular mechanism of action of a potent anti-HIV protein, cyanovirin, paving the way for the design of improved antiviral proteins. The findings are presented in a paper published on Biochemistry this month. In cyanovirin, the anti-HIV activity mediated by its high-affinity binding to oligosaccharides on the viral surface envelope protein gp120. The protein contains two carbohydrate-binding domains, A and B, each of which can bind short oligomannosides in vitro.

"A Monovalent Mutant of Cyanovirin-N Provides Insight Into the Role of Multiple Interactions with gp120 for Antiviral Activity," R. Fromme, Z. Katiliene, F. Bogani, B. Giomarelli, T.Mori, J. McMahon, P. Fromme and G.Ghirlanda, Biochemistry 46 9199-9207, 2007.