Faculty Profiles

Katherine J. Franz
Katherine J. Franz
Professor in the Department of Chemistry
Office: 
2103 French Science Center, 124 Science Drive, Durham, NC 27708
Phone: 
(919) 660-1541
katherine.franz@duke.edu
Franz Research Group
Research Interests: 

Research in the Franz group is involved in elucidating the structural and functional consequences of metal ion coordination in biological systems. We are particularly interested in understanding the coordination chemistry utilized by biology to manage essential yet toxic species like copper and iron. Understanding these principles further guides our development of new chemical tools to manipulate biological metal ion location, speciation, and reactivity for potential therapeutic benefit. We use a combination of synthesis, spectroscopy, and biochemistry in our work. Please visit our group website to learn more about our research.

Overview

Education:

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2000

B.A., Wellesley College 1995

Research Areas:
Biomolecular Structure and Function, Inorganic

Liu, Lucy L., and Katherine J. Franz. “Phosphorylation-dependent metal binding by alpha-synuclein peptide fragments.” Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry : Jbic : A Publication of the Society of Biological Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 12, no. 2, Feb. 2007, pp. 234–47. Epmc, doi:10.1007/s00775-006-0181-y. Full Text

Charkoudian, Louise K., et al. “A pro-chelator triggered by hydrogen peroxide inhibits iron-promoted hydroxyl radical formation.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 128, no. 38, Sept. 2006, pp. 12424–25. Epmc, doi:10.1021/ja064806w. Full Text

Tesema, Yohannes T., et al. “Synthesis and characterization of copper(II) complexes of cysteinyldopa and benzothiazine model ligands related to pheomelanin.” Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 45, no. 16, Aug. 2006, pp. 6102–04. Epmc, doi:10.1021/ic060262n. Full Text

Charkoudian, Louise K., and Katherine J. Franz. “Fe(III)-coordination properties of neuromelanin components: 5,6-dihydroxyindole and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid.” Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 45, no. 9, May 2006, pp. 3657–64. Epmc, doi:10.1021/ic060014r. Full Text

Jiang, Jianfeng, et al. “A Mets motif peptide found in copper transport proteins selectively binds Cu(I) with methionine-only coordination.” Inorganic Chemistry, vol. 44, no. 26, Dec. 2005, pp. 9787–94. Epmc, doi:10.1021/ic051180m. Full Text

Liu, Lucy L., and Katherine J. Franz. “Phosphorylation of an alpha-synuclein peptide fragment enhances metal binding.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 127, no. 27, July 2005, pp. 9662–63. Epmc, doi:10.1021/ja043247v. Full Text

Nitz, Mark, et al. “Structural origin of the high affinity of a chemically evolved lanthanide-binding peptide.” Angewandte Chemie (International Ed. in English), vol. 43, no. 28, July 2004, pp. 3682–85. Epmc, doi:10.1002/anie.200460028. Full Text

Wöhnert, Jens, et al. “Protein alignment by a coexpressed lanthanide-binding tag for the measurement of residual dipolar couplings.” Journal of the American Chemical Society, vol. 125, no. 44, Nov. 2003, pp. 13338–39. Epmc, doi:10.1021/ja036022d. Full Text

Franz, Katherine J., et al. “Lanthanide-binding tags as versatile protein coexpression probes.” Chembiochem : A European Journal of Chemical Biology, vol. 4, no. 4, Apr. 2003, pp. 265–71. Epmc, doi:10.1002/cbic.200390046. Full Text

Nitz, Mark, et al. “A powerful combinatorial screen to identify high-affinity terbium(III)-binding peptides.” Chembiochem : A European Journal of Chemical Biology, vol. 4, no. 4, Apr. 2003, pp. 272–76. Epmc, doi:10.1002/cbic.200390047. Full Text

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