This CAREER Award in the Inorganic, Bioinorganic and Organometallic Chemistry Program supports the research and education plans of Patrick J. Farmer at the University of California at Irvine. The goal of the proposed research is to understand new biomimetic chemistry of myoglobin (Mb) contained within a film on an electrode. Such Mb-films have electrocatalytic nitrite and sulfite reductase activity. By using modified myoglobins, functionally active structural models for the reductases will be studied by electrochemical methods. Aims of the research include identifying the nature of intermediates leading to N-N and S-S products and to probe oxygen atom transfer reactions from reduced Fe-bound N- and S-oxide intermediates. Modified myoglobins in thin films will be used as models of nitrite and sulfite reductase enzymes. An undergraduate course aimed at students interested in health-related careers will be developed and a training program for graduate students instituted involving collaborative research, rotations in research laboratories and seminars.
