Enzyme Evolution
Rosanna Alderson
I graduated with an honours degree in biochemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 2011, after which I joined Dr John Mitchell’s group as new PhD student. I am interested in molecular enzymology and in particular the evolution of catalysis at the mechanistic level.
Using a variety of bioinformatics techniques we aim to understand how different organisms use their own complements of enzymes by studying the diversity of enzyme usage and their chemical mechanisms across a variety of organisms, including model and disease- relevant ones. Using a combination of the presence and absence of enzymes in species across the tree of life, together with our own chemical mechanistic insights, and protein function prediction we aim to better understand the evolutionary history of enzymes.
It is hoped that this will involve improvement in the estimation of the evolutionary age of enzymes as well as Identification of biologically relevant interactions between small molecules and enzymes, with important applications to enzyme classification, protein-function prediction and drug discovery.
