Alexandra Brown

Inorganic and Organometallic, Organic, Chemical Biology

The Brown group focuses on controlling the coordination sphere of transition metals in enzymes to address long-standing challenges in bioinorganic chemistry and catalysis. Enzymes in Nature carry out a wide range of chemical reactions with astounding precision. However, many classes of reactions that are utilized extensively in fine chemical synthesis are not known to be performed in Nature. We target new strategies to expand the classes of reactions accessible to metalloenzymes through both protein editing and directed evolution strategies. Our lab's interdisciplinary approach spans inorganic, organic, and biochemical techniques to develop new catalytic functions in enzymes and to gain fundamental insight into how the reactivity and electronic structure of metal centers in biological settings can be manipulated.