Karen Allen

BIOGRAPHY

ACADEMIC POSITION:
• Professor, Department of Chemistry, Boston University
• Associate Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Boston University School of Medicine

EDUCATION:
• BS in Biology, 1984, Tufts University, cum laude
• PhD in Biochemistry, 1989, Brandeis University, supported as a Dretzin Scholar in the laboratory of Dr Robert Abeles
• American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow, 1989-1993 in the laboratory of Drs Gregory Petsko and Dagmar Ringe at MIT and Brandeis University

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
• Council Member ASBMB (2010-present)
• Chair, Gordon Research Conference on Enzymes Coenzymes and Metabolic Pathways (2002)
• Member, NIH Biochemistry Study Section (2002-present)
• Member NSF Molecular and Cellular Biosciences Panel (1997-2000)
• Member, Nominating Committee, American Chemical Society, Division of Biological Chemistry (2002)

RESEARCH INTERESTS::
• Elucidation of enzyme mechanisms through X-ray crystallography and kinetics
• Mechanism of phosphate transfer reactions, evolution of substrate specificity in enzyme superfamilies, deciphering moonlighting functions of enzymes via examination of protein-protein interactions on the molecular level

HOME PAGE
http://chemweb.bu.edu/groups/allengroup/index.html