Hai Lab
Principal Investigator: Yang Hai
Institution: University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA)
Primary Subfield: Molecular & Cell Bio
Recruitment Status: ✅ Accepting PhD Students ✅ Hiring Postdocs
Research Focus
Project Summary PLP-dependent enzymes are one of the most versatile biocatalysts and catalyze a diverse range of chemical transformations. They are widespread in nature and play critical roles in metabolism and numerous cellular processes. Studying PLP enzymes is hence important for us to understand biology and develop therapeutics. Because of their exquisite and versatile catalytic activity, PLP-dependent enzymes are also remarkable biocatalysts to build diverse structurally complex and bioactive natural products; and are indispensable biocatalytic tools for asymmetric synthesis of noncanonical amino acids and chiral amine pharmaceuticals. However, despite the vast number of PLP-dependent enzymes characterized to date, our abilities to predict, manipulate, and harness their activities are still largely limited. This research program desires to fill the knowledge gap by integrating discovery, mechanistic investigation, and biocatalytic application to systematically and comprehensively study four types of carbon-carbon (C-C) bond forming and cleaving PLP enzymes, including our recently discovered PLP-dependent Mannich cyclase. These enzymes represent the frontier of PLP enzymology b…
Active NIH Awards
- 3R35GM151205-04S1: Understanding the specificity and non-native catalytic activity of PLP-dependent enzymes (2026)
- 5R35GM151205-04: Understanding the specificity and non-native catalytic activity of PLP-dependent enzymes (2026)
- 5R35GM151205-03: Understanding the specificity and non-native catalytic activity of PLP-dependent enzymes (2025)
- 3R35GM151205-03S1: Understanding the specificity and non-native catalytic activity of PLP-dependent enzymes (2025)
- 5R35GM151205-02: Understanding the specificity and non-native catalytic activity of PLP-dependent enzymes (2024)
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