Rudolf K. Allemann

Professor Rudolf Konrad Allemann is a Distinguished Research Professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor International and Student Recruitment and Head of the College of Physical Sciences and Engineering at Cardiff University.[1] Allemann joined Cardiff University in 2005, after working at the University of Birmingham, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich and the UK MRC National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill. He was previously Head of the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University until April 2017.

Rudolf Allemann
NationalitySwiss
Alma materETH Zurich
Known forBiological Chemistry
Scientific career
FieldsChemical Biology
Synthetic Biology
InstitutionsCardiff University
Doctoral advisorSteven A. Benner

Education and academic career

Allemann earned his Dipl. Chem. ETH (B.S./M.S.) from ETH Zurich in 1985.[1] His PhD was carried out at Harvard University and ETH Zurich with Steven A. Benner and culminated in the award of a Dr. sc. nat ETH for his thesis 'Evolutionary Guidance as a Tool in Organic Chemistry'.[2] He then moved to the UK to as a Royal Society and Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Medical Research, before returning to the ETH Zurich in 1992 as a research group leader in Biological Chemistry. He completed his habilitation in 1998 ('DNA Recognition by Eukaryotic Transcriptional Regulators')[2] and then joined the University of Birmingham, first as a Senior Lecturer and then Professor of Chemical Biology. Since 2005 he has been a Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff University and in 2017 was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of College of Physical Sciences and Engineering.[1] In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.[3]

Research

A leading protagonist of modern biological chemistry, Allemann's research bridges the gap between enzymology and organic chemistry. By exploiting chemical, biophysical, enymological and molecular biology techniques, he has made contributions towards understanding enzymatic mechanisms. He has pioneered detailed mechanistic investigations of terpene synthases such as aristolochene synthase, germacrene-A synthase and delta-cadinene synthase, leading to insights into how the diversity of the terpenome (terpene and terpenoid natural products) is generated from a single precursor.[4] Allemann's work on hydrogen transfer catalysing enzymes including dihydrofolate reductase has led to deep new insights into the contributions from quantum mechanical tunnelling and protein dynamics to the enormous rate accelerations typical of Nature’s catalysts.[5] Allemann’s laboratory has been among the pioneers in synthetic biology and has developed innovative applications such as the first generation of designer enzymes,[6] intracellular biophotonic nanoswitches (photoactivated peptides) and optogenetic tools for the control of biological processes in cell culture and in live organisms,[7] as well as pioneering new methodology in synthetic biology for generating novel unnatural terpene-like non-natural natural products with applications in agriculture and healthcare.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Professor Rudolf Allemann Dipl. chem. ETH, Dr.sc.nat.(PhD),CChem,FRSC". Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  2. Allemann, Rudolf Konrad (1989). ETH ETH E-Collection: Evolutionary guidance as a tool in organic chemistry - ETH E-Collection (Thesis). ETH Zurich. doi:10.3929/ethz-a-000510383. hdl:20.500.11850/139665.
  3. The Learned Society of Wales. Retrieved January 24, 2017
  4. Miller, DJ Allemann, RJ (2012). "Sesquiterpene synthases: Passive catalysts or active players?". Natural Product Reports. 29 (1): 60–71. doi:10.1039/C1NP00060H. PMID 22068697.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. Luk, YPL Loveridge, EJ Allemann, RK (2015). "Protein motions and dynamic effects in enzyme catalysis". Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 46 (17): 30817–30827. Bibcode:2015PCCP...1730817L. doi:10.1039/c5cp00794a. PMID 25854702.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. Johnsson, K Allemann, RK Widmer, H Benner, SA (1993). "Synthesis, structure and activity of artificial, rationally designed catalytic polypeptides". Nature. 365 (6446): 530–532. Bibcode:1993Natur.365..530J. doi:10.1038/365530a0. PMID 8413606. S2CID 4255683.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. Kneissl, S Loveridge, EJ Williams, C Crump, MP Allemann, RK (2008). "Photocontrollable Peptide-Based Switches Target the Anti-Apoptotic Protein Bcl-X-L". ChemBioChem. 9 (18): 3046–3054. doi:10.1002/cbic.200800502. PMID 19012295. S2CID 24821306.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. Cascon, O Touchet, S Miller, DJ Gonzalez, V Faraldos, JA Allemann, RK (2012). "Chemoenzymatic preparation of germacrene analogues" (PDF). Chemical Communications. 48 (78): 9702–9704. doi:10.1039/C2CC35542F. PMID 22914774.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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