Robert McKenna, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
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Robert McKenna, Ph.D. |
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Structural studies of biologically important molecules
We study the three-dimensional structure of biological molecules using the techniques of; X-ray and neutron crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, multi-sequence structural alignments, and computer graphics modeling. Once a three-dimensional model has been obtained for a biological molecule of interest (using one or a combination of the methods listed) we correlate this information to biochemical data to understand the functional characteristics of the molecule. The result is a three-dimensional structural map of the biological molecule in the context of its function - an essential prerequisite for a full understanding of a biological system. Our research is broadly based with special interests in; understanding the mechanism of proton transfer in the metalloproteins carbonic anhydrase and superoxide dismutase; studying HIV proteases inhibitor drug complexes to understand the development of drug resistant strains of HIV; understanding how different forms of estrogen receptors function; designing isoforms specific carbonic anhydrase inhibitors, etc.
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Status: Possibly Accepting New Students This Year Contact Information: office: LG-179 lab: LG-171 phone: 352-392-5696 email: rmckenna@ufl.edu Home Page Biography: Associate Professor Robert McKenna received his Ph.D. in Crystallography at the University of London in 1989 under the direction of Prof. Stephen Neidle for work on structural studies of nucleic acid targeted anti-cancer drug design. He then joined Prof. Michael Rossmann's laboratory at Purdue University, Indiana where he carried out research on structure -function correlations of ssDNA virus capsids. In 1995, he joined the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick, England, UK, as a research fellow, where he continued his research on structure-function analysis of virus capsids. Dr. McKenna joined the Faculty at the University of Florida in 1999. |
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