Shelley D. Copley
Ph.D. Harvard University, 1987
Professor; Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
E-mail: shelley.copley@colorado.edu
Office: CIRES 241
Phone: 303-492-6328
Research Interests
Biodegradation of recalcitrant pollutants; mechanistic studies of enzymes involved in biodegradation.
Current Projects
- Evolution of proteins to serve new functions in a newly evolving pathway for degradation of pentachlorophenol in the soil bacterium Sphingobium chlorophenolicum
- Recruitment of proteins to replace the functions of missing metabolic enzymes required for growth
- Evolution of new functions in protein suprafamilies (groups of proteins derived from a common progenitor that currently carry out widely divergent functions)
- Mechanisms by which antibiotic resistance can arise in clinically important bacteria, and mechanisms by which susceptibility to antibiotics can be restored
Selected Publications
- Anandarajah, K., Kiefer, P.M., Donohoe, B.S. and Copley, S.D., Recruitment of a double bond isomerase to serve as a reductive dehalogenase during biodegradation of pentachlorophenol, Biochemistry, 39, 5303-5311, 2000.
- Copley, S.D., Evolution of a metabolic pathway for degradation of a toxic xenobiotic: The patchwork approach, Trends in Biochemical Sciences, 26, 261-265, 2000.
- McCarthy, D.L., Louie, D. and Copley, S.D., Identification of a covalent intermediate between glutathione and cysteine 13 formed in a catalysis by tetrachlorohydroquinone dehalogenase, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 46, 11337-11338, 1997.
- McCarthy, D., Claude, A. and Copley, S.D., In vivo levelsof chlorinated hydroquinones in a pentachlorophenol-degrading bacterium, Applied and Environmental Microbiology 63, 1883-1888, 1997.
- McCarthy, D., Navarette, S., Willett, W.S., Babbitt, P.C., and Copley, S.D., Exploration of the relationship between tetracholohydroquinone dehalogenase and the glutathione transferase superfamily, Biochemistry, 35, 14634-14632, 1996.
Copley is also one of the CIRES Faculty who teach at the University of Colorado at Boulder with teaching loads equivalent to those of CU faculty rostered solely in departments and programs.
