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Julian Limburg

Assistant Professor

limburg 1251 Wescoe Hall Drive
Malott Hall, Room 4023
University of Kansas
Lawrence, KS 66045

Phone: (785) 864-2971

Fax: (785) 864-5396

Email: jlimburg@ku.edu

Academic Degrees

  • B.Sc., 1993, University of East Anglia, UK
  • Ph.D., 1999, Yale University
  • Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar, 2000-2003, University of California, Berkeley
  • Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar, 2003-2004, University of California, San Francisco

Areas of Specialization

Bioinorganic Chemistry

Research Interests

The chemistry and biochemistry of metalloenzymes.

Bioinorganic chemistry lies at the interface of inorganic chemistry and biochemistry, focusing on the study of metalloproteins. We are particularly interested in metalloproteins that catalyze oxidation reactions, especially those that use iron as a cofactor. Such enzymes are capable of activating O2 into highly reactive intermediates, and then carefully directing the chemistry of these species. These intermediates are highly unstable, and for this reason they are difficult to study. We will develop artificial ways of producing reactive intermediates under conditions where they are long-lived and open to spectroscopic and structural characterization. This will open the door to understanding how enzymes have evolved specific structures to control these oxidation reactions. We are also interested in exploiting the reactivity, selectivity and specificity of metalloenzymes to develop biocatalysts. Directed evolution can be used to extend the capability of an enzyme towards reactivity with non-natural substrates. This allows an enzyme to be customized for a specific application, and we will use this methodology to produce environmentally benign catalysts.

Selected publications

Julian Limburg, John S. Vrettos, Louise M. Liable-Sands, Arnold L. Rheingold, Robert H. Crabtree and Gary W. Brudvig, A Functional Model for O-O Bond Formation by the O2-Evolving Complex in Photosystem II, (1999) Science 283, 1524-1527.

Julian Limburg, Veronika A. Szalai and Gary W. Brudvig, A Mechanistic and Structural Model for the Formation and Reactivity of a MnV=O Species in Photosynthetic Water Oxidation, (1999) J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans. 1353-1363.

Julian Limburg, John S. Vrettos, Hongyu Chen, Julio C. de Paula, Robert H. Crabtree and Gary W. Brudvig, “Characterization of the O2-Evolving Reaction Catalyzed by [(terpy)(H2O)MnIII(O)2MnIV(OH2)(terpy)](NO3)3 (terpy = 2,2’:6,2”-terpyridine)", (2001) J. Am. Chem. Soc. 123, 423-430.