Our research, which is highly multidisciplinary, is rooted in an interest in understanding the relationship between the structure, function, and environment of proteins and enzymes. The understanding of this relationship is crucial for rationally engineering proteins and enzymes to create new therapies, methods for the detection and destruction of toxic and/or harmful agents, and routes for the synthesis of industrially important chemicals and renewable fuels. We are particularly interested in exploiting the rich and diverse range of properties of polymeric materials to tune the activity and stability of enzymes. In order to tune the properties of enzymes with polymers, it is critical to understand the impact of protein-polymer interactions at the molecular level. As such, my group has had a long standing interest in the impact of materials on protein conformation and dynamics.
keywords
Biocatalysis, Nonaqueous enzymology, Protein structure and function at material interfaces, Protein engineering, Biofuels, Tissue engineering, Bioremediation
