ChEMS Seminar: Enzymatic Bioelectrocatalysis - from Metabolic Pathways to Metabolons

Abstract: Oxidoreductase enzymes have been employed for almost five decades in biosensors, bioelectrosynthesis and for energy conversion in the form of biofuel cells. However, most enzymatic bioelectrodes in the literature utilize complex biofuels (e.g. glucose), but only partially oxidize the complex biofuel via the use of a single enzyme (i.e. glucose oxidase or glucose dehydrogenase). This presentation will detail the use of enzyme cascades at bioanodes for deep to complete oxidation of substrates to improve performance (current density and power density), but will focus on the importance of forming metabolons for substrate channeling in multienzyme cascades. These enzyme cascade will include natural metabolons (i.e. the Kreb's cycle) and artificial metabolons (i.e. utilizing DNA as a scaffold). It will discuss the importance of structural orientation of enzymes and enzyme complexation in enzymatic cascades for efficient bioelectrocatalysis. 

Bio: Shelley Minteer is a USTAR Professor in both the Departments of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Utah. She received her doctorate in analytical chemistry at the University of Iowa in 2000 under the direction of Professor Johna Leddy. After receiving her Ph.D., she spent 11 years as a faculty in the Department of Chemistry at Saint Louis University before moving to the University of Utah in 2011. She is also an associate editor for the Journal of the Electrochemical Society. She has published more than 275 publications and more than 350 presentations at national and international conferences and universities. She has won several awards including the Luigi Galvani Prize of the Bioelectrochemical Society, the Missouri Inventor of the Year, International Society of Electrochemistry Tajima Prize, Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, and Young Investigator Award from the Society of Electroanalytical Chemists. Her research interests are focused on electrocatalysis and bioanalytical electrochemistry. She has expertise in biosensors and bioelectronics.

Host: Allon Hochbaum