Transition Metals in Biology
Professor Wedd visited the School of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Adelaide for research discussions. He presented a seminar entitled “The Affinity of the Abeta Peptide for Cu(I) and Cu(II): Implications for the Catalytic Production of Reactive Oxygen Species”.
Ms Chathuri Wijekoon (Bsc (Hons), University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka) has commenced a PhD degree with the group. She will be examining the chemistry of copper pumps and their partners.
Masters student Ben Spyrou has joined the group. He is interested in the binding of copper and iron to alpha-synuclein, the protein associated with Parkinsons disease.
Professor Wedd attended the Fourth International Symposium on Metallomics held in Oviedo, Spain from July 8-11, 2013. He made a presentation entitled “Evaluation of Quantitative Probes for Weaker Cu(I) Binding Sites Completes a Set of Four Capable of Detecting Cu(I) Affinities from Nanomolar to Attomolar”.
Saumya Udagedara and Professor Wedd attended the Sixteenth International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry in Grenoble, France from July 22-26, 2013. Saumya presented a poster entitled “PcoE, a metal sponge expressed to the periplasm of copper resistance E. coli. Implication of its function role in copper resistance”. She also initiated a collaboration with Professor Christoph Fahrni (Georgia Institute of Technology) on chromophoric probes for copper. Professor Wedd presented a keynote lecture entitled “New Probes for Weaker Cu(I) Binding Sites Completes a Set of Four That Can Detect Affinities from Nanomolar to Attomolar”.
PhD student Tatsuya Kitagawa has arrived to work with us for ten months. He is from the Nagoya Institute of Technology in Japan. He will work initially on the intriguing protein Sumo-2, which is appropriate as he is from Japan !!.
Our paper “Interaction of Cisplatin and Analogue Pt(en)Cl2 with the Copper Metallo-Chaperone Atox1” by C. M. Sze, Z. Shi, G. N. Khairallah, L. Feketeova, R. A. J. O’Hair, Z. Xiao, P. S. Donnelly and A.G. Wedd has now been published (Metallomics 2013, 5, 956-964).
Our paper “Evaluation of Quantitative Probes for Weaker Cu(I) Binding Sites Completes a Set of Four Capable of Detecting Cu(I) Affinities from Nanomolar to Attomolar” has now been published (Metallomics 2013, 5, 501-513).
Saumya Udagedara has received support from the Bio21 Institute for attendance at the 16th International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry in Grenoble in July.
Our paper “Evaluation of Quantitative Probes for Weaker Cu(I) Binding Sites Completes a Set of Four Capable of Detecting Cu(I) Affinities from Nanomolar to Attomolar” is at the top of the list of most downloaded Advance Articles from the Metallomics website for April.
Dr. Zhiguang Xiao presented a seminar entitled “Is Oxidative Stress in Neurodegenerative Diseases Linked to Copper Binding to the Disease Proteins?” to the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne on April 23.
Laura Cortes Castrillon has arrived and started her PhD work. She will initially work with Franziska Boneberg and Dr Zhiguang Xiao to clone and express certain multi-copper oxidase enzymes.
Angie Kirchner and Franziska Boneberg have arrived to carry out research projects that are part of the requirements of the Masters in Biochemistry and Chemistry at the Ludwig-Maximilians University of Munich, Germany. Angie is working with Tessa Young on identifying chromophoric probes for Cu(II). Franziska’s work is described above.
Sarah Buckley has decided to postpone her Masters work and to take a break.
The following manuscript has been accepted for publication in Metallomics: “Evaluation of Quantitative Probes for Weaker Cu(I) Binding Sites Completes a Set of Four Capable of Detecting Cu(I) Affinities from Nanomolar to Attomolar” by Z. Xiao, L. Gottschlich, R. van der Meulen, S. R. Udagedara and A. G. Wedd.
Tessa Young has started her Honours work. She is working on defining the affinities of Abeta peptides for Cu(I) using new chromophoric probes developed in the laboratory by Dr. Zhiguang Xiao.
Sarah Buckley has started her Masters project. She aims to define the affinities of the alpha-synuclein protein (associated with Parkinson’s Disease) for copper to determine if it is able to act as a catalyst to produce toxic reactive oxygen species.A paper based on the work of Zhenyu Zhi has now appeared: Z. Shi, A. G. Wedd and S. L. Gras “Parallel In Vivo DNA Assembly by Recombination: Experimental Demonstration and Theoretical Approaches” PLoS ONE 2013,8(2): e56854. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056854.
Dr Zhiguang Xiao spoke at the Free Radical and Metal Biology Conference in Brisbane: “Quantification of Weak Cu(I) Binding Helps Understanding the Role of Copper in Neurodegenerative Diseases”
Laura Cortes Castrillon will be starting her PhD work with us in February. Laura will be our first student ever from Columbia!! She has a background in synthetic and structural inorganic chemistry.
Tessa Young has started work as a Summer Student. She will continue as an Honours Student in 2013. Good luck with it all, Tessa!
Professor Wedd attended the Sixth Asian Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry in Hong Kong and presented an invited paper entitled “Metallo-Oxidase Enzymes”.
The group’s application for support for 2013-15 to the Australian Research Council was successful: “How does Redox Cycling Drive the Metabolism of the Essential Metals Iron and Copper?”
Jens Brose spoke at the Inorganic Chemistry Symposium of the Victorian Branch of the Royal Australian Institute about “Glutaredoxin 1: A Redox Enzyme and Cu(I) Binding Protein?” He was awarded an ‘Honourable Mention’ as one of the three best oral presentations. David Hayne (Donnelly Group) also achieved this distinction.
Number of posts found: 74