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 Associate Professor |
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Ph.D.,
University of London,
1989 |
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| Research |
Structural studies of carbonic anhydrase, carnitine acetyltransferase, prenylating enzymes, actin complexes and the replication proteins of adeno-associated virus.
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| Office: |
LG-179 B |
| Lab: |
LG-171 B |
| Telephone: |
(352) 392-5696 |
| Email: |
rmckenna@ufl.edu |
| Home
Page: |
http://
www.ufbi.ufl.edu/facilities/msg |
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BIOGRAPHY |
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Assistant Professor Robert McKenna received his Ph.D. in Crystallography at the University of London in 1989 under the direction of Prof. Stephen Neidle for work on structural studies of nucleic acid targeted anti-cancer drug design. He then joined Prof. Michael Rossmann's laboratory at Perdue University, Indiana where he carried out research on structure to function correlation for ssDNA virus capsids. In 1995, he joined the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick, England, UK, as a research fellow, where he continued his research on structure-function analysis of virus capsids. Dr. McKenna joined the Faculty at the University of Florida in 1999. |
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RESEARCH DESCRIPTION |
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We study the structure of biological molecules using the techniques of X-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy, multi-sequence structural alignments, computer graphics and modeling. Once a three-dimensional model has been obtained for a biological molecule of interest (using one or a combination of the methods listed) we correlate the structure to the molecular genetics and biochemical data on functional characteristics of the molecule. The result is a three-dimensional structural map of the biological molecule in the context of its function - an essential prerequisite for a full understanding of a biological system. At present we are actively studying various isozymes of carbonic anhydrase and the replication of proteins of adeno-associated virus. |
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