Annual Meeting

Enzymes show off new moves

A 2022 annual meeting session on enzymology
Tadhg Begley Catherine Drennan
By Tadhg Begley and Catherine Drennan
Sept. 30, 2021

Enzymes are responsible for the chemical reactions that enable all forms of life. Whether it’s the archaea living in hot springs, the bacteria deep in our soil, the plants harnessing energy from the sun or all animals, including us humans, we are all united in our reliance on enzymes. 

Understanding enzymatic chemistry enables us to tackle critical health and environmental problems, such as designing new therapeutics for diseases or using unique enzymatic capabilities for bioremediation. However, we have only skimmed the surface of learning the full scope of chemical reactions that are enzymatically catalyzed, the mysterious and intricate mechanisms that can be performed, and the dynamic motions enzymes undergo to accomplish their chemical tasks.

The presentations in this session will cover many exciting developments in enzymology, including recently discovered enzymatic functions, evidence for trapping long-anticipated enzymatic intermediates, insight into how various cofactors can enable unique reactions, and cutting-edge experimental approaches enabling us to understand better how enzymes dynamically function. There’s still a whole lot to learn about how enzymes get their jobs done. 

Keywords: enzymes, enzyme mechanisms, structural biology, biochemistry, radical SAM enzymes, metalloenzymes, natural product biosynthesis

Who should attend: all who are fascinated by how enzymes can use some newly discovered tricks, handy cofactors and dynamic movements to carry out their chemistry

Theme song: “This is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan

This session is powered proteins, cofactors and coffee.

Talks

  • Repairing enzymes using spare parts — Cathy Drennan, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Machinery in motion: New insights into mitochondrial proteostasis — Gabriel Lander, Scripps Research
  • Structural biology of natural product biosynthetic enzymes — Janet Smith, University of Michigan
  • An aerobic strategy for C–H bond functionalization — Jennifer Bridwell–Rabb, University of Michigan
  • Riboflavin catabolism: The destruction of an icon — Tadhg Begley, Texas A&M University
  • Correlated motions in enzymes — Nozomi Ando, Cornell University
  • Nickel pincer nucleotide: Biosynthesis and function — Robert Hausinger, Michigan State University
  • Bacterial biosynthesis of natural products —Katherine Ryan, University of British Columbia
  • Radical SAMs and the vast unexplored chemistry of RiPP natural products —Douglas Alan Mitchell, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign
  • The biosynthesis of lipoic acid: A saga of death, destruction and rebirth — Squire Booker, Penn State University
  • Unraveling the secrets of radical SAM mechanisms — Joan Broderick, Montana State University
  • How do aerobic organisms solve the oxygen sensitivity problem of [4Fe–4S] in radical SAM enzymes? — Hening Lin, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Cornell University

Learn more

Check out all ten thematic symposia planned for the 2022 ASBMB annual meeting:

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition monthly.

Learn more
Tadhg Begley
Tadhg Begley

Tadhg Begley is a professor and chair of chemistry at Texas A&M University.
 

Catherine Drennan

Catherine Drennan is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and a professor of biology and chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
 

Featured jobs

from the ASBMB career center

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Science

Science highlights or most popular articles

Training AI to uncover novel antimicrobials
Feature

Training AI to uncover novel antimicrobials

Oct. 9, 2025

Antibiotic resistance kills millions, but César de la Fuente’s lab is fighting back. By pairing AI with human insight, researchers are uncovering hidden antimicrobial peptides across the tree of life with a 93% success rate against deadly pathogens.

AI-designed biomarker improves malaria diagnostics
Journal News

AI-designed biomarker improves malaria diagnostics

Oct. 8, 2025

Researchers from the University of Melbourne engineered Plasmodium vivax diagnostic protein with enhanced yield and stability while preserving antibody-binding, paving the way for more reliable malaria testing.

Matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor reduces cancer invasion
Journal News

Matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor reduces cancer invasion

Oct. 8, 2025

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic engineered a TIMP-1 protein variant that selectively inhibits MMP-9 and reduces invasion of triple-negative breast cancer cells, offering a promising tool for targeted cancer research.

Antibiotic sensor directly binds drug in resistant bacteria
Journal News

Antibiotic sensor directly binds drug in resistant bacteria

Oct. 8, 2025

Researchers at Drexel University uncover how the vancomycin-resistant bacterial sensor binds to the antibiotic, offering insights to guide inhibitor design that restores antibiotic effectiveness against hospital-acquired infections.

ApoA1 reduce atherosclerotic plaques via cell death pathway
Journal News

ApoA1 reduce atherosclerotic plaques via cell death pathway

Oct. 1, 2025

Researchers show that ApoA1, a key HDL protein, helps reduce plaque and necrotic core formation in atherosclerosis by modulating Bim-driven macrophage death. The findings reveal new insights into how ApoA1 protects against heart disease.

Omega-3 lowers inflammation, blood pressure in obese adults
Journal News

Omega-3 lowers inflammation, blood pressure in obese adults

Oct. 1, 2025

A randomized study shows omega-3 supplements reduce proinflammatory chemokines and lower blood pressure in obese adults, furthering the understanding of how to modulate cardiovascular disease risk.