Yu Wang

Yu Wang joined the Goodwin laboratory in December 2007. She is from the Jilin province of China, and she came to us by way of Jilin University where she majored in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She served as a research associate in the Biology Experiment Center, the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Laboratory, and the Macromolecular Biology Laboratory of Jilin University. She received a third-place award for her participation in the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program of Jilin University, and she was identified as an Academic Excellence Scholar for every semester she was a student at the the university. Her previous research centered on Te-containing glutathione peroxidase mimics as well as genetic diversity in the cytochrome P450 CYP2C9 and its implications for drug metabolism. In the Goodwin laboratory she made essential contributions to several projects. She showed that the I'-helix is a critical component used by the C-terminal domain to modulate the structure and function of the KatG active site some 30 Angstroms away. She also used the stand-alone C-terminal domain as a starting template for engineering new heme-dependent enzymes. In the last few months of her time here at Auburn, Dr. Wang played an integral role in producing a plasmid construct for the expression of shikimate kinase from M. tuberculosis. Evaluating this enzyme as a target for the discovery of new antitubercular agents is a new research direction in the Goodwin laboratory, and Yu was in on the ground floor of that expansion of our interests. On November 6, 2012, Yu Wang successfully defended her doctoral dissertation entitled: Gene Duplication and Fusion: Strategy for Active Site Control and Starting Point for New Catalysts. She officially graduated from Auburn University with her PhD on December 8, 2012. Dr. Wang moved on to the laboratory of Dr. Robert White at Virginia Tech for her postdoctoral studies. She then accepted a faculty position in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of North Georgia in Dahlonega, GA. She received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2020. Dr. Wang has since moved into the medical profession. She is now starting her third year of medical school at the Morehouse School of Medicine.

Publications and Abstracts

Simithy, J., Gill, G., Wang, Y., Goodwin, D.C., and Calderón, A.I. 2015. "Development of an ESI-LC-MS based assay for kinetic evaluation of M. tuberculosis shikimate kinase" Anal. Chem. 87, 2129 - 2136.

Wang, Y., and Goodwin D.C. 2012. Integral role of the I'-helix in the function of the "inactive" C-terminal domain of catalase-peroxidase (KatG). Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1834, 362 - 371.

Wang, Y., and Goodwin, D. C. 2012. The participation of conserved I’-helix in structure, stability, and catalytic function of KatG. Third Southeast Enzymes Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Wang, Y., and Goodwin, D. 2011. Contribution of an “inactive” domain to rapid H₂O₂ decomposition by KatG. 18^th Annual Meeting of the Society for Free Radical Biology and Medicine, Atlanta, GA.

Wang, Y., and Goodwin, D. C. 2011. Borrowing the E. coli catalase-peroxidase C-terminal domain as a scaffold for generation of new heme-dependent catalysts. Second Southeast Enzymes Conference, Atlanta, GA.

Chen, Z. B., Zhang, B. X., Huang, Z. X., Peng, Q. L, Chen, J., Wang, Y., Zhang, G. Z., Li, W.S., and Liu, L. Y. 2006. Synthesis and kinetics of a novel mimic with glutathione peroxidase activity: Tellurium-containing hyaluronic acid (TeHA). Chin. Chem. Lett. 17, 969 - 972.