Daniel L. Purich, Ph.D.
Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
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Daniel L. Purich, Ph.D. |
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Molecular Motors in Actin-Based Motility A specialist in enzyme chemistry and cell motility, Dr. Purich has published over 150 papers, chapters, and review articles on the mechanisms of action of enzymes, microtubules, and actin filaments. To account for noncovalent substrate- and product-like states of mechanoenzyme reactions (e.g., State1 + ATP = State2 + ADP + Pi), he redefined enzyme catalysis as the facilitated making/breaking of chemical bonds - not just covalent bonds. He also coined the term energase to signify those energy-driven enzymes (e.g., molecular motors, active transporters, translocators, GTPregulatory proteins, ribosomes, etc.) comprising a hitherto unrecognized seventh and distinct class of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. He and UF colleague Richard B. Dickinson co-discovered actoclampin, an entirely novel class of molecular motors that harness the Gibbs energy of ATP hydrolysis as they track along actin filament (+)-ends and generate the substantial forces needed for amoeboid-like cell crawling, endosome and phagosome motility, as well as dendritic spine remodeling into functional synapses
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Status: Inquire About New Students This Year Contact Information: office: Academic Research Building R3-126 lab: Academic Research Building R3-175 phone: 352-392-1546 email: dlpurich@ufl.edu Home Page Biography: Dr. Purich earned the Ph.D. for his investigation of brain hexokinase kinetics and regulation under Professor Herbert Fromm at Iowa State University. As a Staff Research Fellow under Earl Stadtman at the NIH, he conducted groundbreaking research on the enzyme nucleotidylation cascade controlling bacterial glutamine synthetase. Dr. Purich joined the University of California Santa Barbara Chemistry Department in 1973, where he rose through the ranks to become full professor in 1982. While at Santa Barbara, he was awarded an A. P. Sloan Fellowship, the Harold J. Plous campus-wide outstanding teaching award, and NIH Research Career Development Award. In 1984, he became Chairman of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and resumed full-time professorial activities in 1996. Dr. Purich served on the JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL CHEMISTRY and ARCHIVES OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND BIOPHYSICS (1975-85) editorial boards, the NIH Biochemistry Study Section, and as a founding member of the NIH Physical Biochemistry Study Section. He edited the six-volume Enzyme Kinetics & Mechanism treatise in the METHODS IN ENZYMOLOGY series, as well as CONTEMPORARY ENZYME KINETICS & MECHANISM (1st ed., 1983; 2nd ed., 1996). Dr. Purich is the lead author of THE HANDBOOK OF BIOCHEMICAL KINETICS (2000) and THE ENZYME REFERENCE (2002), the latter a comprehensive 1000-page guide to the reactions and properties of nearly 7000 documented enzymes. His latest book MODERN ENZYME KINETICS: PRINCIPLES & PRACTICES will appear in Spring, 2008. |
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