Research topics of the Physicochemistry of Metals in Biology team
Published on 25 January 2019
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About one third of proteins are known to harbor a metal site, which is essential for their function. The metal ion can play various roles such as structuring the protein, transferring electrons or catalyzing hydrolytic or redox reactions.
Our team takes its inspiration from the metal sites of proteins and makes use of their properties to design molecular catalysts for various reactions. Two types of reactions are currently under investigation: (i) nitrene transfer and (ii) the conversion of alcools into amines by tandem cascade catalysts.
Another research axis focuses on metallopeptides with two objectives: (i) to design and study models of zinc or iron sites of metalloproteins in order to understand their reactivity and (ii) to design probes for the detection of metal cations or biomolecules by luminescence or by MRI. The research of the team relies on a strong expertise in various spectroscopies including electronic absorption, circular dichroism, luminescence and various magnetic spectroscopies (NMR, EPR, …).
The team runs a Mössbauer platform dedicated to the study of iron-containing chemical and proteic systems.
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