Jonathan Johnston Email and Phone Number

My collaborative research focused on using cutting edge mass spectrometry to study problems in biology, specifically:- Studying protein-complexes and protein-ligand interactions using native mass spectrometry- Post-translational modifications: prenylation- Metabolomics: untargeted and targeted

Characterization of Cytochrome P450 enzymes from Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), neglected tropical diseases, and other disease targets. Emphasis on identifying the function and mechanism of drug target P450s using a broad biochemical approach. I characterized the first CYP124 enzyme as well as characterized other P450s in Mtb, including showing their role in cholesterol utilization and validation of these as drug targets. Skills:-cloning, over-expression, mutagenesis, and purification of enzymes-enzyme kinetics and assays-developed assays to characterize and identify novel P450 metabolites, metabolomics-mass spectrometry, NMR, chromatography, spectroscopy (UV-vis, fluorescence), as well as other tools

Mechanistic enzymology of isoprenoid biosynthetic enzymes. I focused on the catalytic mechanism of enzyme drug targets where I demonstrated that two divergent enzymes utilized similar chemical mechanism for catalysis despite having different cofactors and primary structures. This work has important implications for drug targeting in infectious diseases. Tools used:- molecular cloning, protein-engineering, over-expression and purification of enzymes- characterization of enzymes using kinetics, inhibitors, kinetic isotope effects- structural characterization of protein and small molecules using NMR, mass spectrometry and other tools

Pharmaceutical Product Development-Developed and implemented bio-analytical methods for recombinant proteins