The Gene and Linda Voiland School of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering is hosting a seminar presented by Dr. John Peters, Director and Professor, Institute of Biological Chemistry at Washington State University and Director of the Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis Energy Frontier Research Center, Nov. 6, at 4:10 p.m. in ADBF 1002/FLOYD 256 (Tri-Cities).
Professor Peters earned his B.S. in Microbiology (1989) from the University of Oklahoma and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry (1995) from Virginia Tech., where he was supported by a Pratt Animal Nutrition Fellowship. He was a Ruth Kirschstein NIH post-doctoral fellow at Cal. Tech. from 1995-1997. He has held faculty positions at Utah State University and Montana State University. He was the recipient of a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award from the Dreyfus Foundation and Atorvastatin Research Award from Pfizer as a young investigator. He recently joined the faculty at WSU in the Institute of Biological Chemistry (IBC) as Professor and Director. Peters has over 160 publications including publications in Science, Nature, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. His research has been supported by NSF, NIH, DOE, USDA, NASA, DoD (AFOSR and ONR), and ACS. He served as the director of Montana State University’s Thermal Biology Institute (TBI) for approximately 10 years. TBI is a recognized center of excellence in the state of Montana focusing on Yellowstone hot springs that has made seminal contribution to both research and scientific education and outreach. He has extensive experience leading multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research teams, has served as a co-PI on DoD Multiple University Research Initiative (MURI) and NSF Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) projects, and was lead PI and director of the NASA Astrobiology Institute funded Astrobiology Biogeocatalysis Research Center (ABRC) for 6 years. In addition to serving as the current Director of WSU’s IBC, he also is the lead PI and Director of the DOE funded Biological Electron Transfer and Catalysis (BETCy) Energy Frontier Research Center.
Electron bifurcation: A newly discovered 3rd mechanism of biological energy conservation
Electron bifurcation is the recently-recognized third mechanism of biological energy conservation. It simultaneously couples exergonic and endergonic oxidation-reduction reactions to circumvent thermodynamic barriers and minimize free energy loss. Little is known about the details of how electron bifurcating enzymes function, but specifics are beginning to emerge for several bifurcating enzymes. To date, those characterized contain a collection of redox cofactors including flavins and iron-sulfur clusters. The current understanding of bifurcating enzymes and the hypothetical mechanistic features required to reversibly partition multiple electrons from a single redox site into exergonic and endergonic electron transfer paths will be discussed. New insights into the mechanism of electron bifurcation from a combination of structural and optical spectroscopic work will be presented.
