Event

Dr. Shiyu Zhang

Ohio State University 

"Modeling Enzymatic Reactivity with Coordination Compounds"

-Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule that regulates a range of biological processes, including immune response, smooth muscle relaxation, and neurotransmission. Due to the short lifetime of NO, Nature has developed specific regulatory strategies that store NO as air-stable S-nitrosothiols (RSNOs) and nitrite (NO2-). Copper proteins play a critical role in the homeostasis of NO, RSNOs, and nitrite. Dysregulation of NO, RSNOs, and nitrite has been associated with high level of oxidative and nitrosative stress, which can lead to neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Our group focuses on understanding the chemical reactivity of NO, NO2- and RSNO at biological dicopper center using synthetic model complexes. Employing a dicopper complex developed in our laboratory, we found that dicopper(I,I) complex can react with NO or nitrite to generate a unique dicopper (II,III) oxo nitrosyl species [Cu2(μ-O)(μ-NO)]2+, which exhibit both oxidative and nitrosative reactivity. The dicopper (II,III) oxo nitrosyl efficiently oxidizes phosphine to phosphine oxide, hydrocarbons to alcohol, and thiol to S-nitrosothiols. In the second part of my talk, I will discuss how our research on copper nitrosyl complexes lead to the discovery of monocopper electrocatalysts C-H fluorination and cyanation reaction. 

https://research.cbc.osu.edu/zhang.8941/research/

HOST: TOMSON