January 21st, 2014
The next CDT Seminar will be held Tuesday, January 21st, at 1:00pm in the Petit Science Center, room PSC 124. Please join us to hear Dr. Lei Li, Assistant Professor, Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and Assistant Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Indiana University School of Medicine. His talk is entitled “A Unique Radical Transfer Pathway in Spore Photoproduct Lyase“. Dr. Li’s research focuses on the mechanistic understanding of the formation and enzymatic repair of a special thymine dimer, 5-thyminyl-5,6-dihydrothymine, which is commonly called the spore photoproduct (SP). He has proved that the SP repair enzyme, the spore photoproduct lyase, is the first enzyme in the large radical SAM superfamily (> 50, 000 members) to utilize a unique radical transfer pathway for catalysis. His latest work proves that the current paradigm in the DNA photochemistry and photobiology field that SP is only found in UV irradiated endospores is not correct. SP likely exists in a broad range of species, including humans, and potentially possesses a highly deleterious impact to the host organism. There will be a meet and greet with coffee and cookies from 12:45am – 1:00pm I look forward to seeing you there.
Jenny J. Yang, Ph.D.
Center for Diagnostics and Therapeutics