Research Summary
Dr. Redinbo’s laboratory studies the molecular basis of human disease. They have examined human drug metabolism systems, human nuclear receptors, human topoisomerases, countermeasures to nerve agents, and antibiotic resistance propagation. The research starts in vitro, understanding at the structural level how, for example, individual target enzymes process medically relevant substrates, including many drugs, and their ability to create novel chemical products. They often then strive to develop potent inhibitors to these enzymes, guided by structural and chemical biology, and subsequently move in vivo and ex vivo to test validated compounds in mouse and rat model systems to examine a range of phenotypes. A central axis of the research hinges on protein crystallography to discover the distinct structures and molecular features of diverse gut microbial enzymes. They also utilize standard PK studies as well as next-generation “omics” technologies such as gut microbial next-generation sequencing and metabolomics. Furthermore, as the primary focus of the lab now is gut microbial enzymes, they have developed the first activity-based probe-enabled targeted proteomics pipeline to discover and quantify the levels of specific enzymes in human feces. There are on-going projects in human nuclear receptors, pulmonary defense proteins, and medically relevant kinases. The overarching goal is to develop novel therapeutics to improve human health.
CGIBD Focus Area(s): Microbiome
Pilot and Feasibility Award 2008
Collaborators: Azcarate, Bhatt, Fodor, Gulati, Rawls, Sartor, Theriot
