Francisco Fernandez-Lima
Florida International University, FL·Chemistry
Many important molecules are hard to see clearly because they are floppy, mixed together or constantly changing shape. Examples include proteins bound to DNA and the thousands of carbon compounds dissolved in natural waters.
- Fields
Chemistry
Biochemistry
Earth & Environmental Science
- Topics
mass spectrometry
ion mobility spectrometry
FT-ICR MS
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Feb 2029
What they work on
- Develop mass spectrometry workflows that combine solution labeling, trapped ion mobility spectrometry (which separates ions by shape) and electron- or UV-based fragmentation to study biomolecular complexes near their native state.
- Track how the HMGA2 protein switches from unstructured to structured forms as it binds DNA, using the new ion mobility and mass spectrometry tools.
- Capture structural snapshots of type IA topoisomerase-DNA complexes, an enzyme that untangles DNA, across its catalytic cycle to search for new antibiotic candidates.
- Determine how histone variants and post-translational modifications, chemical tags on histone proteins, affect how nucleosomes assemble and come apart, using native mass spectrometry.
- Build a tandem ion mobility and FT-ICR mass spectrometry platform (IMSn-FT-ICR MSn), with data processing and visualization software, to characterize dissolved organic matter at the level of molecular structure.
More about the research
Mass spectrometry weighs molecules by turning them into charged particles, called ions, and measuring how they move in electric and magnetic fields. Two projects push this technique, and the instruments built around it, to reveal the structure of such complex systems. One focuses on protein-DNA machinery in cells, and the other on dissolved organic matter in the environment.
Why it matters
Structural tools for floppy, changing protein-DNA complexes could improve understanding of disease mechanisms and help identify therapeutic targets, including possible new antibiotics that act on bacterial topoisomerase. Detailed molecular profiles of dissolved organic matter could help environmental scientists track how carbon, nutrients, metals and contaminants move through aquatic ecosystems.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Carlos Larriba Andaluz
Purdue University, IN·Chemistry
Develop higher-order ion mobility approximations using two-temperature theory, then add ion energy calculations and inelastic collision effects to explain how ion mobility spectrometry separates isomers.
Leanne Powers
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, NY·Chemistry
Measure apparent quantum yields, meaning how efficiently absorbed sunlight produces reactive species, for triplet DOM, singlet oxygen, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radical from field DOM and model compounds such as lignin, tannins and flavonoids.
Jonas Baltrusaitis
Lehigh University, PA·Chemistry
Synthesize struvite microcrystals with tailored iron content and characterize their chemical composition and physical properties, to predict how this wastewater-derived fertilizer behaves in the environment.
The school
Florida International University: 9 labs on PI Pages, $326M a year on research, 264 research doctorates a year.
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