Mario Amzel

Three dimensional structure and mechanism of proteins: redox and phosphoryl transfer enzymes. Many of these molecules are targets for drug design.

• Redox enzymes: Lipoxygenase; quinone reductase; peptidyl hydroxylating monooxygenase; isoprene epoxy-carotenoid dioxygenases; ?eta-methyl acyl-CoA hydroxylase (Phythanic acid); MICAL (FAD hydroxylase); and Duox2.
  

•  Phosphoryl transfer: Mitochondrial ATP-synthase; Nudix pyrophosphatases; E.coli ADP-ribosehydrolase; M. tuberculosis ADP-ribose hydrolase, E.coli GDP-mannose hydrolase; E.coli dihydroneopterin hydrolase; D.radiodurans CoA hydrolase; Trypanosome Cruzi farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase; human PI3K-alpha (phosphoinositide 3 kinase).

      Representative Publications:

• Chung S, Parker JB, Bianchet M, Amzel LM and Stivers JT (2009) Impact of linker strain and flexibility in the design of a fragment-based inbibitor. Nature Chemical Biol 6:407-13. Pub Med Reference
• Messing S, Gabelli SB, Liu Q, Celesnik H, Belasco JG, Piñeiro SA, and Amzel LM.  (2009) Structure and biological function of the RNA pyrophosphohydrolase BdRppH from Bdellovibrio  bacteriovorus.  Structure 17(3):472-81. Pub Med Reference
• Bianchet MA and Amzel LM (2007) Making the right moves.  Structure 15(8): 885-6. Pub Med Reference
• Parker JB, Bianchet MA, Krosky DJ, Friedman JI, Amzel LM and Stivers JT.  (2007) Enzymatic capture of an extrahelical thymine in the search for uracil in DNA.  Nature 449(7161):433-7.  Pub Med Reference
• Huang CH, Mandelker D, Schmidt-Kittler O, Samuels Y, Velculescu VE, Kinzler KW, Vogelstein B, Gabelli SB, Amzel LM. (2007) The structure of a human p110alpha/ p85alpha complex elucidates the effects of oncogenic PI3Kalpha mutations. Science 318 (5857):1744-8. (Highlighted Article Review in Nature Reviews / Cancer Vol 8: 76-7.) Pub Med Reference
• Gabelli, SB, McLellan, JS, Montalvetti, A, Oldfield, E, Docampo R. Amzel, LM.  (2006) Structure and mechanism of the farnesyl pyrophosphate synthase from Trypanosoma cruzi: implications for drug design.  Proteins 62(1): 80-88. Pub Med Reference

Other graduate programs in which Dr. Amzel participates:

BCMB Program
Intercampus Program in Molecular Biophysics