This talk will present our recent efforts in integrating advanced single-molecule fluorescence techniques into the field of biological inorganic chemistry to study metalloprotein/metalloenzyme structures and functions at the single-molecule level. The talk will cover three topics: (1) Single molecule bioinorganic enzymology. In this project we are developing a novel catalysis-coupled fluorescence quenching strategy to follow in real time individual enzymatic reactions of a single tyrosinase enzyme. We aim to provide unique insights into how enzyme dynamics are coupled to their catalysis. (2) Metallochaperone protein interaction dynamics. In this project we are using a combination of nanovesicle trapping and single-molecule FRET techniques to follow protein interactions between copper chaperones and their target proteins one event at a time. We aim to provide insights into how metallochaperones “catalyze” metal transfer through specific protein-protein interactions. (3) Transcriptional regulation by metalloregulatory proteins. In this project we are developing a single-molecule method based on engineered DNA Holliday junctions as single-molecule reporters to study how MerR-family metalloregulatory proteins interact with DNA for transcriptional regulation. We aim to characterize the protein-DNA interaction dynamics, DNA and protein conformational dynamics that are involved in the regulation process to understand their metal-responsive regulation mechanism.

Peng Chen obtained his B.S. in Chemistry from Nanjing University, China in 1997, and did his Ph.D. at Stanford University with Prof. Edward Solomon in the field of bioinorganic and physical inorganic chemistry. He spent a year and half with Prof. Sunney Xie at Harvard University as a postdoctoral researcher in the field of single-molecule biophysics, before joining Cornell in July 2005 as an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology. His current research interests focus on single-molecule fluorescence studies of metalloprotein structure-dynamics-function correlations and of nanoparticle catalysis.