Xiaoshi Wang receives Springer Theses Award

Recent graduate Xiaoshi Wang (Groves Lab) has been awarded the prestigious Springer Theses Award for her thesis entitled “A Novel Heme-Thiolate Peroxygenase AaeAPO and Its Implications for C-H Activation Chemistry.”
 
Xiaoshi was nominated by her Thesis Advisory Committee member, Prof. Seyedsayamdost who shared the following recommendation, “In her thesis, Xiaoshi examined the mechanism of action of a new extracellular heme-thiolate P450 peroxygenase. P450 enzymes are versatile catalysts that carry out a number of important and difficult modifications. For decades, the application of this enzyme class in the industry has been a major goal; however, their instability and lack of solubility has precluded wide-spread industrial use. Xiaoshi’s thesis focused on an extracellular P450 enzyme that does not have many of these limitations. In her thesis she demonstrates that the peroxygenase catalyzes a wide scope of reactions, in some cases very difficult transformations in molecules that are highly inert. Her detailed investigations provide a mechanistic framework for how the peroxygenase catalyzes this wide array of reactions. A major highlight of her thesis is the identifications of key short-lived intermediates in the catalytic cycle of the peroxygenase, using rapid kinetic and spectroscopic methods, as well as elucidation of the thermodynamic properties of these high-energy intermediates. Heme-thiolate P450 enzymes have been studied for over 40 years, yet the thermodynamic information gathered on the peroxygenase by Xiaoshi is a major ‘first’. Her work adds new insight into an important class of enzymes and deserves the strongest consideration for the award.”
 
More information regarding the Springer Prize can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OyjwZS9nK0 and at http://www.springer.com/series/8790