Kylie Allen
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Microbiology & Immunology
Many proteins need a specific metal ion to fold and work properly. Free metal ions are toxic, so cells use helper proteins called metallochaperones to carry the right metal to the right protein.
- Fields
Microbiology & Immunology
Biochemistry
Chemistry
- Topics
metallochaperones
nickel
metalloenzymes
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2028
What they work on
- Identify which metallochaperones bind and deliver nickel to each nickel-dependent enzyme in methanogenic archaea, using in vivo crosslinking to trap interacting proteins and quantitative proteomics to identify them.
- Test the physiological importance of individual nickel metallochaperones through targeted gene deletions in genetically tractable model methanogens, measuring effects on nickel-dependent enzyme activity and growth.
- Characterize how candidate chaperones bind nickel and hand it off to their client enzymes, using in vitro biochemical experiments with purified proteins.
- Define how methanogens take up, store and export nickel, building a picture of nickel homeostasis and its links to methanogenesis and carbon assimilation.
More about the research
This project asks how methanogens deliver nickel to the enzymes that need it. Methanogens are single-celled archaea that release methane as a by-product of how they make energy.
Why it matters
Model methanogens are emerging as hosts for making valuable molecules from low-cost starting materials. Knowing how nickel reaches each nickel-dependent enzyme could let researchers tune those enzymes' activity and steer methanogen metabolism toward producing biofuels and commodity chemicals.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Arpita Bose
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Microbiology & Immunology
Characterize how a phototrophic bacterium and a methanogenic archaeon grow together as a syntrophic pair, defining the co-metabolic activities each partner contributes under anoxic conditions.
Xiongyi Huang
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Chemistry
Engineer metalloenzymes — proteins with a catalytic metal center — to perform C–H functionalization reactions absent from natural biology, installing chemical groups of biomedical relevance into organic substrates.
Carmella Vizza
Hawaii Pacific University, HI·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether saltwater introduction lowers methane emissions because sulfate-reducing bacteria outcompete methanogens, comparing freshwater control, saltwater-treated and naturally intertidal ponds in Hawai'i.
The school
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: 35 labs on PI Pages, $657M a year on research, 496 research doctorates a year.
More about Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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