Research Statement
Modern research is frequently at the interface of (or crosses) traditional divisional boundaries within chemistry departments (organic, inorganic, analytical, biochemistry, and physical). The breadth of research efforts conducted in the Pierce group embrace this interdisciplinary approach, thus providing training in methods and instrumentation typically outside traditional divisional boundaries. In our group, modern biophysical and bioinorganic techniques are applied to provide an "atomic level" understanding of metalloenzyme function and regulation.
Current topics of interest include mononuclear non-heme iron oxygenases involved in sulfur oxidation and transfer, post-transcriptional modifications of transfer RNA (tRNA), and arylamine N-oxygenase chemistry. The Pierce group specializes in the use of Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, and thus much of this work applies both dual mode continuous wave (CW) and pulsed (FT) EPR techniques to interrogate molecular interactions within the enzymatic active site. In addition, we participate in several productive collaborations. Providing analytical EPR characterization to explore the electronic structure of organic and inorganic synthetic complexes. |