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Katherine DavisAssistant Professor of ChemistryPhysics Graduate Program Member
Education
Ph.D., Purdue University, 2014
Biography
Awards & Honors
2018 NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00)
2015 – 2018 Arnold O. Beckman Postdoctoral Fellowship
2011 – 2014 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
2009 – 2011 Purdue Doctoral Fellowship
Research Area
Experimental biophysics, biophysical chemistry, structural biology, spectroscopy, metalloenzymology.
Research Interest
Metalloenzymes catalyze a broad range of biological transformations important for cofactor biosynthesis, antibiotic production, and primary metabolism. Visualizing their catalytic processes in real-time, however, is technically challenging, and our understanding of this vast mechanistic landscape remains limited. We aim to develop and apply physical methods to probe the dynamics of metal-containing enzymes to unravel mechanism. In particular, we interrogate the concerted modulation of electronic properties and structural dynamics which facilitate metallocofactor function using carefully tailored spectroscopic and crystallographic experiments.