Description of Research Expertise

Amino-acid radicals represent key components in biological processes ranging from energy transduction to carcinogenesis and, yet, little is known about the thermodynamic and mechanistic properties of these species. This situation reflects the simple fact that the characteristically reactive and thermodynamically hot radical state is highly challenging to study in the natural systems. We have created a model protein system specifically made to facilitate structural, electrochemical and mechanistic studies of tyrosine and tryptophan radicals. Using this system we aim to systematically characterize the proton-coupled electron transfer reactions of amino-acid radicals as a function of structural motifs in the protein environment.