TODAY! Chemistry Seminar Series
Title: Towards Engineering New Substrate Specificities into a Meningococcal Capsule Polymerase
Speaker: Dr. Pumtiwitt McCarthy, Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry, Morgan State University
Date: Thursday, April 3
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: SC 4230
Abstract:
Neisseria meningitidis is one of the leading causes of bacterial meningitis worldwide. There are six disease causing serogroups, each characterized by the capsular polysaccharides surrounding the pathogen. The McCarthy research group seeks to harness the power of the capsule polymerase enzymes, which synthesize meningococcal capsular polysaccharides, as biosynthetic tools. We have sought to gain new insights into the NmW capsule polymerase using experimental and computational approaches. The long-term goal of our work is to gain fundamental understanding of the N. meningitidis serogroup W capsule polymerase and find new ways to modulate catalysis for the rational design of polysaccharide products. This presentation will describe our progress on these efforts thus far.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. McCarthy is a tenured Associate Professor of Chemistry and currently serves as co-Director of the RISE program at Morgan State University. She has been at Morgan since 2023 and served as Interim Chairperson of the Chemistry Department from 2021-2023. Dr. McCarthy has built an interdisciplinary, externally funded research program that investigates carbohydrate-producing enzymes from Neisseria meningitidis for the development of improved vaccines and the production of new bio-based tools for remediation of heavy metals in water. At Morgan, she has mentored 38 students (from high school to doctoral level students) in biochemical research. Before beginning her independent career, Dr. McCarthy was an ORISE and NIH PRAT postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (2009-2013). She obtained her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Delaware (2009) and a B.S. in Biochemistry from Rowan University (2003).
Categorised in: General
This post was written by Charles, Amanda G.