Professor Wilfred van der Donk will present the 2013 ACS Chemical Biology Lecture at the Spring 2013 ACS National Meeting in recognition of his contributions to understanding enzyme reaction mechanisms. The ACS Chemical Biology Award Symposium (01:45 PM - 05:10 PM) will be held Tuesday, April 9, 2013 in the International Ballroom at the DoubleTree by Hilton New Orleans with Professor van der Donk speaking at 4:20 PM.
Professor van der Donk's laboratory determined the structures of radical intermediates generated by prostaglandin H synthase by using synthetic isotopically labeled arachidonic acid substrates, and studied the mechanism of phosphite dehydrogenase, an enzyme that catalyzes a nucleophilic substitution reaction with a hydride leaving group. He and his coworkers also provided insights into vitamin B12-catalyzed dechlorination of the priority pollutants perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene. More recently, his group studied the biosynthesis of natural products, including lantibiotics, phosphonates, and S-linked glycopeptides. The topics of these investigations include the cyclase that generates five thioether rings in nisin, a non-heme iron dependent enzyme that cleaves an unactivated carbon-carbon bond during the biosynthesis of the herbicide phosphinothricin, and a related enzyme that generates methylphosphonate, the likely substrate for methane production in the oceans. Van der Donk and colleagues have used their understanding of natural product biosynthesis for genome mining efforts that to date have uncovered more than 30 new natural products.
Click here for the entire list of ACS Division of Biological Chemistry award recipients.