Bioinorganic Chemistry

BIOGRAPHY

Sandrine Ollagnier-de-Choudens is an Associate Faculty Member who works with Marc Fontecave to evaluate the literature relevant to their research interests.

ACADEMIC POSITION:
CNRS researcher, Institute of Life Sciences Research and Technologies (iRTSV), Laboratoire Chimie et Biologie des Métaux (LCBM), CEA Grenoble

EDUCATION:
PhD in biochemistry, Université de Grenoble, France (1997)

RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Iron-sulfur clusters are ubiquitous ancient prosthetic groups that are required to sustain fundamental life processes including electron transfer, redox and non-redox catalysis, gene regulation and protein structure stabilization. Even though enzymatic systems involved in the formation of iron-sulfur clusters have been identified and characterized, the molecular mechanism by which clusters are assembled is poorly understood. To unravel this mechanism in procaryotes, we use traditional biochemical and enzymological approaches in combination with structural methods such as X-ray crystallography and different forms of spectroscopy. Another aspect of our research concerns the reactivity of Fe/S cluster enzymes. A growing interest in the last few years has been to understand how Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide is synthesized in procaryotes with a particular focus on the Fe/S cluster containing enzyme quinolinate synthase. Using organic synthesis, biochemistry, enzymology and spectroscopy we aim at understanding the molecular mechanism by which this enzyme condenses two substrates to form a key intermediate in NAD biosynthesis, quinolinic acid.