Katherine J Franz, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Center for Biologically Inspired Materials and Material Systems

Contact Info:

Office Location:	2103 FFSC
Office Phone:	(919) 660-1541
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.chem.duke.edu/labs/franz

Education:

Ph.D.	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA	2000
B.A., magna cum laude	Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA	1995

Specialties:

Inorganic
Biochemistry
Biomolecular Structure and Function
Synthesis

Research Interests:

Research in the Franz group is involved in elucidating the structural and functional consequences of metal ion coordination in biological systems. We are particularly interested in understanding the coordination chemistry utilized by biology to manage essential yet toxic species like copper and iron. Understanding these principles further guides our development of new chemical tools to manipulate biological metal ion location, speciation, and reactivity for potential therapeutic benefit. We use a combination of synthesis, spectroscopy, and biochemistry in our work. Please visit our group website to learn more about our research.

Areas of Interest:

Bioinorganic Chemistry

Current Ph.D. Students   (Former Students)

• Qin Wang  
• Andrew Franks  
• Mark Sleeper  
• David Besse  
• Marian Helsel  
• Drew S. Folk  

Postdocs Mentored

• Prof. Anupa Kumbhar (Visiting Scientist from Univ. of Pune, India) (2010 - 2011)  
• Filip Kielar (2009 - 2012)  
• David Pham (2006-2008)  
• Yohannes Tesema (2004-2007)  
• Jianfeng Jiang (2004-2005)  

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Franz, Katherine J., Clawing back: broadening the notion of metal chelators in medicine, Current Opinion in Chemical Biology0 (2013), ISSN 1367-5931 [S1367593112001652], [doi]
2. Kumbhar, Anupa A. and Franks, Andrew T. and Butcher, Raymond J. and Franz, Katherine J., Light uncages a copper complex to induce nonapoptotic cell death, Chemical Communications (2013), pp. 2460--2462, The Royal Society of Chemistry, ISSN 1359-7345 [C3CC38927H]  [abs]
3. Kielar, F. and Helsel, M. E. and Wang, Q. and Franz, K. J., Prochelator BHAPI protects cells against paraquat-induced damage by ROS-triggered iron chelation, Metallomics (June, 2012) [doi]  [abs]
4. Franz, Katherine J., Application of inorganic chemistry for non-cancer therapeutics, Dalton Transactions, vol. 41 no. 21 (2012), pp. 6333--6334, ISSN 1477-9226 ((guest editorial for themed issue).) [C2DT90061K]
5. Kielar, F.; Wang, Q.; Boyle, P. D. and Franz, K. J., A boronate prochelator built on a triazole framework for peroxide-triggered tridentate metal binding, Inorganica Chimica Acta0 (2012), ISSN 0020-1693 [S0020169312003714]