Prof. Andy Nguyen
Title: Peptide frameworks as microcosms of proteins
Bio:
Andy is a native of Orange County, CA and obtained his B.S. in chemistry from UC Irvine in 2010 and Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from UC Berkeley in 2016. While at UCI, he explored redox-active organometallic complexes of early transition metals in Alan Heyduk’s group. At UC Berkeley, with T. Don Tilley, he worked on the chemistry of artificial photosynthesis, where he developed cobalt metalloclusters and studied their mechanism of catalytic oxygen-evolution. In a postdoctoral fellowship at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory with Ron Zuckermann, he gained expertise in peptide and peptidomimetic chemistry. Since 2020, his research group at the University of Illinois Chicago integrates peptide design with inorganic chemistry to tackle challenges involving metalloenzyme mimicry, energy-conversion catalysis, and materials design.
Abstract:
The chemistry that enables protein function remains to be fully elucidated. To better understand how proteins developed their chemistry, we examine the hypothesized ancestors of proteins: peptide assemblies. Our long-term goal is to answer the question “can peptide assemblies behave and evolve like proteins?” If simple peptides recapitulate the basic properties of proteins, then not only do we learn how complexity is generated bottom-up, but it also enables easy-to-make bio-inspired materials for many applications. Our main focuses are on (1) how peptide assemblies acquire new structures and (2) using the assemblies to design functional and model systems to understand proteins and metalloproteins. Towards this goal, we have developed porous frameworks composed of peptides, which are highly evolvable, dynamic, and crystalline scaffolds that enable the routine use of X-ray crystallography to elucidate structure-function relationships. In this talk, I will describe how peptide framework structures evolve in structure, dynamicity, as well as their applications.
Keywords: Peptide, porous materials, bioinorganic
Faculty Host: Prof. Jeff Martell