Dr. James A. Cowan has been selected as a National Science Foundation 1992 Young Investigator. This five year continuing award recognizes the research and teaching achievements of new faculty members. Cowan is a member of the chemistry department at Ohio State University where he will continue to carry out research in bioinorganic chemistry, concentrating on understanding the structural requirements for the interaction of metals with nucleic acids and enzymes. His work will focus on four areas: (1) the role of the magnesium ion cofactor in polynucleotide processing enzymes; (2) sequence selective metal binding to nucleic acids; (3) metalloregulatory mechanisms for DNA-protein interactions; and (4) structural factors of protein binding to high potential iron protein. Folding and sequencing in proteins imposes specific requirements for association by a metal, but binding by a metal can also modify the protein's structure and enhance (or reduce) its enzymatic activity. Cowan will investigate these specific cases in order to understand the requirements for and consequences of metal binding to DNA and certain polynucleotides and enzymes.
