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, J.B., Bianchet, M., Amzel, L.M. and Stivers, J.T. (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, S.B., Liu, Q., Celesnik, H., Belasco, J.G., Piñeiro, S.A., and Amzel, L.M.  (2009) Structure and biological function of the RNA pyrophosphohydrolase BdRppH from Bdellovibrio  bacteriovorus.  Structure 17(3):472-81. Pub Med Reference
  
  
• Bianchet, M.A. and Amzel, L.M. (2007) Making the right moves.  Structure 15(8): 885-6. Pub Med Reference
  
  
• Parker, J.B., Bianchet, M.A., Krosky, D.J., Friedman, J.I., Amzel, L.M. and Stivers, J.T.  (2007) Enzymatic capture of an extrahelical thymine in the search for uracil in DNA.  Nature 449(7161):433-7.  Pub Med Reference
  
  
• Huang, C.H., Mandelker, D., Schmidt-Kittler, O., Samuels, Y., Velculescu, V.E., Kinzler, K.W., Vogelstein, B., Gabelli, S.B., and Amzel, L.M. (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, S.B., McLellan, J.S., Montalvetti, A., Oldfield, E., Docampo, R., and Amzel, L.M.  (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