Katherine Henzler- Wildman Assistant Professor Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics

Office: 2808 North Building Phone: 314-362-1674 Fax: 314-362-7183 Email: khenzler@biochem.wustl.edu Lab Website Research Opportunities

Mailing Address: WUSM - Biochemistry Dept. 660 S. Euclid Ave., MS8231 St. Louis, MO 63110

Research

The Henzler-Wildman lab is interested in the functional importance of membrane protein dynamics. Membrane proteins are active molecules that perform critical tasks relaying signals and molecules across the cell membrane and across membrane barriers within the cell. To fully understand the function of these proteins, not only the structure, but the timescale, amplitude, and directionality of structural changes must be determined.

We are currently studying the small multidrug resistance transporter EmrE. Our research combines atomic resolution structural data and quantitative dynamics information obtained from NMR spectroscopy with traditional activity assays to build a molecular model of the transport process and study the mechanism of transporter-driven multidrug resistance.

Selected Publications

• Ramamoorthy, A., Lee, D-K., Santos, J.S. and Henzler-Wildman, K.A. Nitrogen-14 Solid-state NMR spectroscopy of aligned phospholipid bilayers to probe peptide-lipid interaction and oligomerization of membrane associated peptides. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 130:11023–11029 (2008).

• Porcelli, F., Verardi, R., Shi, L., Henzler-Wildman, K.A., Ramamoorthy, A., and Veglia, G. NMR Structure of the cathelicidin-derived human antimicrobial peptide LL-37 in dodecylphosphocholine micelles. Biochemistry, 47:5565–5572 (2008).

• Henzler-Wildman K.A. and Kern D. Dynamic personalities of proteins. Nature 450:964-972 (2007).

• Henzler-Wildman K.A., Lei M., Thai V., Kerns S.J., Karplus M., and Kern D. A hierarchy of timescales in protein dynamics is linked to enzyme catalysis. Nature 450:913-916 (2007).

• Henzler-Wildman K.A., Thai V., Lei M., Ott M., Wolf-Watz M., Fenn T., Pozharski E., Wilson M.A., Petsko G.A., Karplus M., Hübner C.G., and Kern, D. Intrinsic motions along an enzymatic reaction trajectory. Nature 450:838-844 (2007).

• Wolf-Watz M, Thai V, Henzler-Wildman K, Hadjipavlou G, Eisenmesser EZ, Kern D. Linkage between dynamics and catalysis in a thermophilic-mesophilic enzyme pair. Nat. Struct. Mol. Biol. 11:945-949 (2004).

• Henzler-Wildman K.A., Martinez G.V., Brown M.F., Ramamoorthy A. Perturbation of the hydrophobic core of lipid bilayers by the human antimicrobial peptide LL-37. Biochemistry 43:8459-8469 (2004).