Mendel Lectures, Stephen J. Benkovic

• 19. května 2016
• Refektář Augustiniánského opatství, Mendlovo muzeum, Mendlovo náměstí 1a, Brno

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19 May 2016, 5 p.m.
Stephen J. Benkovic
Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, USA
Title: „On De Novo Purine Biosynthesis: The Purinosome“

Stephen James Benkovic (born April 20, 1938) is an American chemist. He is Evan Pugh Professor and Eberly Chair in Chemistry at Penn State University.His research has focused on mechanistic enzymology and the discovery of enzyme inhibitors.He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1985.
Benkovic was born in Orange, New Jersey. He earned his B.S. degree in chemistry and an A.B. degree in English literature from Lehigh University in 1960. He earned his Ph.D in organic chemistry from Cornell University in 1963.

Benkovic was a postdoc at University of California, Santa Barbara. There he and his advisor Thomas C. Bruice developed bioorganic textbooks that focused on enzyme catalysis. He joined the chemistry department at Penn State University in 1965. There, he uses the T4 DNA polymerase as a model system to explain the proficiency of enzymes.[5] He also uses the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase and the pathway for de novo purine biosynthesis to gain insights into enzymatic catalysis.