Welcome

The Hematian Research Group is interested in biological and energy sciences from an inorganic chemistry perspective. We combine a variety of research tools to address fundamental challenges related to biochemical and chemical catalysis, sustainability, and renewable energy. Our research is targeted towards manipulation of a broad range of redox processes that take place within homogeneous photocatalysts, protein scaffolds, and electrochemical systems.

Metalloproteins have many different functions in cells, such as electron transfer, O₂-transport, O₂-reduction (oxidase activity), biological substrate oxygenation (oxygenase activity) or reduction of a variety of other biological substrates such as nitrogen oxides (NO_x), molecular nitrogen (N₂), carbon dioxide, hydrogen peroxide, sulfate, etc. Central to all of these processes is the presence of the unique metal cofactors within protein frameworks that allows metalloenzymes to perform functions such as redox reactions through optimizing the flow of protons and electrons between their various substrates.

Using nature as inspiration, we seek to understand the fundamental mechanisms underlying the role of metal ion cofactors in enzymes and developing artificial metalloenzyme or bio-inspired synthetic systems for applications in catalysis and beyond. We draw on expertise from a variety of areas including bioinorganic chemistry, inorganic synthesis, chemical biology, materials chemistry, and electrochemistry. Our group started off in August of 2018 and our work covers many different aspects of redox chemistry.

Fall 2023