| People
- Faculty
- Professor:
Alison Butler |
| Field(s): |
Inorganic/Bioinorganic Chemistry |
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| Email: |
butler@chem.ucsb.edu |
| Phone: |
(805)
893-
8178 |
Fax:
(805)
893-
4120 |
| Office: |
3670D PSB North |
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Selected
Publications |
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Go
to Research Group website |
| Bio: |
Dr. Butler received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1982. She was a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA and Caltech before joining the faculty in 1986. She has received an American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She has chaired three Gordon Research Conferences: Environmental BioInorganic Chemistry (2006), Metals in Biology (2004) and Marine Natural Products (2002). |
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Current
Research
My research interests are in the area of bioinorganic chemistry and metallobiochemistry with an emphasis on the roles of metal ions in the catalytic activity of metalloenzymes. Two areas of current concentration, in which we are beginning to probe the bioinorganic chemistry of the marine environment, are investigations of 1) the mechanism of acquisition of transition metal ions by marine microorganisms and 2) the biological role of vanadium.
In 1) we are examining the mechanism of acquisition of iron and other metals by marine bacteria, because the transition metal composition of the ocean is very unusual. We are investigating the types of siderophores and other metal uptake components in marine bacteria to determine the similarities and differences in metal binding reactions between marine and terrestrial systems.
In 2) we are studying the mechanism of vanadium bromoperoxidase, a marine enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of halides by hydrogen peroxide. Our investigations employ both direct studies of vanadium bromoperoxidase as well as small vanadium complexes that are functional biomimics of the enzyme to determine the role of the essential vanadium ion and the role of the protein.
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| Selected
Research Publications |
| Photoreactivity of Iron(III)-Aerobactin: Photoproduct Structure and Iron(III) Coordination, F.C. Kü C.J. Carrano, J-U. Kuhn, Alison Butler, Inorg. Chem., 2006, 45, 6026-6033.
| | Micelle to Vesicle Transition of an Iron-Chelating Microbial Surfactant, Marinobactin E, T. Owen, R. Pynn, J.S. Martinez and Alison Butler, Langmuir, 2005, 21, 12109-12114.
| | Vanadium Bromoperoxidase-Catalyzed Biosynthesis of Halogenated Marine Natural Products, J. N. Carter-Franklin and Alison Butler, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 15060-15066.
| | Structure and Dynamics of a New Suite of Amphiphilic Siderophores Produced by a Marine Bacterium, J.S. Martinez, J.N. Carter-Franklin, E.L. Mann, J.D. Martin, M.G. Haygood and Alison Butler, Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci., USA, 2003, 100, 3754-3759.
| | Photochemical cycling of iron in the surface ocean mediated by microbial iron(III)-binding ligands, K. Barbeau, E.L. Rue, K.W. Bruland and Alison Butler, Nature, 2001, 413, 409-413.
| | Self-Assembling Amphiphilic Siderophores from Marine Bacteria, J.S. Martinez, G.P. Zhang, P.D. Holt, H.-T. Jung, C.J. Carrano, M.G. Haygood and Alison Butler, Science, 2000, 287, 1245-1247.
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