Department Seminar

Upcoming Seminar

Learning from Nature: Model metalloenzymes for energy conversion
Dr. Hannah Shafaat, UCLA

May 6, 2026
4:00pm-5:00pm in HSCI-105

Metals are found in over half of all proteins, playing essential functional and structural roles. The most challenging chemical reactions that lie at the core of vital life processes are catalyzed by metalloenzymes, which perform carbon and nitrogen fixation, photosynthesis, and respiration with unparalleled rates and efficiencies. Native metalloenzymes use only earth-abundant transition metals and operate under mild conditions, accessing reactivity that remains largely out of reach for synthetic systems.

Given the importance of these fundamental processes in the context of energy, environment, sustainability, and human health, gaining molecular-level understanding into how metalloenzymes work is of the utmost importance. To this end, we are developing protein-based models as structural, functional, and mechanistic mimics of naturally occurring metalloenzymes. Nickel-containing, multimetallic enzymes such as hydrogenase, carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH), and acetyl coenzyme A synthase (ACS) are implicated in chemoautotrophic origins of life and play key roles in the metabolisms of ancient bacteria and archaea. However, the molecular mechanisms of catalysis remain relatively poorly understood, thwarting efforts to build biomimetic synthetic systems that act with the efficacy of native enzymes. In this presentation, our recent efforts to install and characterize novel reactivity in model protein scaffolds will be discussed. By combining functional studies of our model proteins with diverse spectroscopic techniques and computational investigations, we can obtain a comprehensive understanding of how the electronic and geometric structures dictate reactivity in each system. Looking forward, we hope to apply these principles towards engineering effective systems for selective energy conversion reactions while learning about fundamental chemical transformations.

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