With this award, the Chemistry of Life Processes program is supporting the research of Professor Katherine Franz at Duke University to develop copper binding agents that change their ability to complex copper in response to different stimuli. Copper is an essential micronutrient across most forms of life, but it can also be toxic if not appropriately managed by a complex network of copper trafficking proteins. The researchers will prepare two classes of agents: those that respond to UV light by converting high-affinity chelators into products with weak copper affinity, and conversely those that respond to enzymatic processing to convert non-binders into effective copper sequestering agents. The intellectual merits of the proposal are the creation of new chemical agents with complementary function to increase or decrease bioavailable copper as chemical biological tools.
The broader impacts of this project are to support the education and training of graduate, undergraduate, and high school students in an interdisciplinary lab environment. High school students from disadvantaged backgrounds will be recruited through the NC Project SEED program, while undergraduate students, particularly female and underrepresented minority students from schools with less extensive research opportunities, will be recruited through the Duke Chemistry REU program. Building upon past efforts, the Franz group will work to mentor these students and expose them to frontline research.
This award is being co-funded by the Cellular Processes Cluster in the Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB) Division of the BIO Directorate.
