Ferman Chavez Awarded NIH Grant

Ferman Chavez Awarded NIH Grant

CBR member Ferman Chavez, of the Department of Chemistry, has been awarded a grant by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, one of the National Institutes of Health. His three-year grant (R15GM112395) will support mechanistic studies on bioremediation metalloenzymes, and will provide $334,168 in the first year. 

PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The placement of toxic compounds into the environment by industry either intentionally or accidentally has adversely impacted human health. Certain organisms have evolved which are capable of enzymatically degrading these pollutants. In this research, we aim to study the degradation mechanism for these enzymes in hopes of creating novel catalysts capable of carrying out these reactions.