Department of Biochemistry, Duke University School of Medicine
Abhi successfully defended his PhD dissertation. He studied the mechanism of 1,3-beta-D-glucan synthase by developing a novel SEC assay for glucan length determination and chain length terminators. A part of his work has been published in Biochemistry. Congratulations, Dr. Abhi!
Dr. Ogasawara visited Duke to give a seminar about his studies on peptide natural product biosynthesis. We had a group meeting with him and had a very insightful discussion. It was great to have you here, and we look forward to more interactions in the future! Dr. Ogasawara is an assistant professor at Hokkaido University and the 2018 recipient of the award for young researchers from Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Agrochemistry. 
This paper describes the mechanistic characterization of a yeast beta-1,3-D-glucan synthase (GS). GS is a proven target of FDA-approved antifungal drugs, but its catalytic mechanism is poorly understood. Using a newly developed size exclusion chromatography (SEC) assay, we were able to monitor the chain elongation for the first time and found that GS catalyzes the formation of a long glucan (~2,000 – 7,000 mer) at an amazing efficiency (~50-60 Glc unit polymerized per sec). The use of substrate analogs also revealed that the enzyme catalyzes the polymerization at the nonreducing end. The study also discusses the first comprehensive model of the GS catalytic cycle.
Hai and Matthew won the poster award in the Biochemistry Department retreat. Hai presented his work on mitomycin biosynthesis, where he successfully demonstrated that the early steps of mitomycin biosynthesis proceed with intermediates linked to an acyl carrier protein (ACP). The work was published earlier this year. Matthew presented his progress in the study of nikkomycin/polyoxin biosynthesis. He received this award two years in a row! Congratulations to both of you.
Abhi gave a poster presentation of his work on the mechanism of (1,3)-beta-D-glucan synthase in the 2019 Enzymes Coenzymes and Pathway GRC, and won a poster award. Congratulations!!
Hai’s work on the characterization of MitE and MitB enzymes in mitomycin biosynthesis was published in ACS Biochemistry. In this paper, we provide experimental evidence that the early steps of mitomycin biosynthesis proceeds with the biosynthetic intermediates linked to an acyl carrier protein (ACP). This is one of the first examples of ACP-dependent non-PKS/NRPS pathways, and the first step towards understanding the complex mechanism of mitomycin biosynthesis.
Kenichi Yokoyama, Ph.D. has been selected as the 2019 recipient of the Pfizer Award in Enzyme Chemistry administered by the American Chemical Society (ACS). The Pfizer Award was established in 1945 and aims to stimulate fundamental research in enzyme chemistry by scientists, not over forty years of age. Dr. Yokoyama is the second recipient of this award in this department. The first awardee was Dr. Paul Modrich in 1983.
Matthew received the poster award in the Biochemistry annual retreat. He presented his thesis work on the biosynthesis studies of antifungal peptidyl nucleoside natural products. Congratulations!! This is the fifth poster award for the lab since the establishment in 2011.
An article published by STAT, a national publication medium focused on scientific and medical discoveries, highlights the current status of functional enzymology, for which Ken provided expertise. It describes the importance of genome mining discovery of enzymes with novel functions, the interests of many enzymologists including us.
A conference to celebrate JoAnne Stubbe’s 70th birthday will be held in Boston MA on June 11-12. Most of the Stubbe lab alumni and many collaborators (~130 attendees) will gather and discuss their latest progress. Ken will give a talk and Edward will present a poster. Thank you Marty (Bollinger) and Dan (Nocera) for organizing such an exciting event. Looking forward to see friends and new people.
