Shiliang Tian

Active Mentor - currently hosting PULSe students for laboratory rotations and recruiting PULSe students into the laboratory; serves on preliminary exam committees

Current Research Interests:

Metalloproteins are important in biology because they catalyze essential reactions in life-like cellular respiration, photosynthesis, and nitrogen fixation under mild conditions and with high efficiency and selectivity. Research in the Tian lab lies at the interface of physical, inorganic, and biological chemistry and utilizes a wide range of spectroscopic and computational techniques to elucidate the functions and mechanisms of metalloproteins. The information gained through this type of work will provide insight into the electronic and geometric structures of metalloproteins and their associated mechanistic roles in pathogenesis, which can be beneficial in the development of effective therapeutic treatments. We aim to 1) investigate the roles of metal ions homeostasis in neurodegenerative diseases, 2) design functional metalloproteins for biosynthetic, biotechnological and pharmaceutical applications, and 3) elucidate the molecular basis of the mechanism of magnetoreception.

Selected Publications:

Tian, S.#; Fan, R.#; Albert, T.; Khade, R. L.; Dai, H.; Harnden, K. A.; Hosseinzadeh, P.; Liu, J.; Nilges, M. J.; Zhang, Y.; Moënne-Loccoz, P.; Guo, Y.; Lu, Y., Stepwise nitrosylation of the nonheme iron site in an engineered azurin and a molecular basis for nitric oxide signaling mediated by nonheme iron proteins. Chem. Sci. 2021. (# contributed equally)

Tian, S.; Jones, S. M.; Solomon, E. I., Role of a Tyrosine Radical in Human Ceruloplasmin Catalysis. ACS Cent. Sci. 2020, 6 (10), 1835–1843.

Tian, S.; Jones, S. M.; Jose, A.; Solomon, E. I., Chloride Control of the Mechanism of Human Serum Ceruloplasmin (Cp) Catalysis. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2019, 141 (27), 10736-10743.

Tian, S.; Liu, J.; Cowley, R. E.; Hosseinzadeh, P.; Marshall, N. M.; Yu, Y.; Robinson, H.; Nilges, M. J.; Blackburn, N. J.; Solomon, E. I.; Lu, Y., Reversible S-nitrosylation in an engineered azurin. Nat. Chem. 2016, 8, 670.

Hosseinzadeh, P.#; Tian, S.#; Marshall, N. M.#; Hemp, J.; Mullen, T.; Nilges, M. J.; Gao, Y.-G.; Robinson, H.; Stahl, D. A.; Gennis, R. B.; Lu, Y., A purple cupredoxin from Nitrosopumilus maritimus containing a mononuclear type 1 copper center with an open binding site. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2016, 138 (20), 6324-6327. (# contributed equally)

Sieracki, N. A.#; Tian, S.#; Hadt, R. G.#; Zhang, J.-L.; Woertink, J. S.; Nilges, M. J.; Sun, F.; Solomon, E. I.; Lu, Y., Copper–sulfenate complex from oxidation of a cavity mutant of Pseudomonas aeruginosa azurin. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2014, 111 (3), 924-929. (#contributed equally)