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Faculty Publication: Chemistry's Sharon Burgmayer

November 30, 2023
Sharon Burgmayer
Professor of Chemistry Sharon Burgmayer

Author: Burgmayer, Sharon

Source: Molecules, Volume 28, Issue 21, Nov. 2023, DOI10.3390/molecules28217296

Type of Publication: Journal Article

Description: This contribution describes the path of my nearly forty-year quest to understand the special ligand coordinated to molybdenum and tungsten ions in their respective enzymes. Through this quest, I aimed to discover why nature did not simply use a methyl group on the dithiolene that chelates Mo and W but instead chose a complicated pyranopterin. My journey sought answers through the synthesis of model Mo compounds that allowed systematic investigations of the interactions between molybdenum and pterin and molybdenum and pterin-dithiolene and revealed special features of the pyranopterin dithiolene chelate bound to molybdenum.

Chemistry