Vanderbilt University

Martin Egli, Ph.D.

Richard N. Armstrong Ph.D.Professor of Biochemistry

Ph.D., Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, 1988 (Organic Chemistry)

As an X-ray crystallographer, Prof. Egli is involved in a number of ongoing collaborations to determine how cancer-causing chemicals interact with DNA to produce mutations. He is an expert in the fields of structural and chemical biology. Specifically, he is interested in the three-dimensional structure of DNA and RNA and the design of therapeutics based on that structure, as well as structural and functional aspects of certain enzymes that affect tumor cell growth.

Recent Publications

Eoff RL, Irimia A, Angel KC, Egli M, Guengerich FP. Hydrogen bonding of 7,8-dihydro-8-oxodeoxyguanosine with a charged residue in the little finger domain determines miscoding events in Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase Dpo4. J Biol Chem. 2007 282:19831-43.

Pallan PS, Egli M. Selenium modification of nucleic acids: preparation of oligonucleotides with incorporated 2'-SeMe-uridine for crystallographic phasing of nucleic acid structures. Nat Protoc. 2007 2:647-51.

Pallan PS, Egli M. Selenium modification of nucleic acids: preparation of phosphoroselenoate derivatives for crystallographic phasing of nucleic acid structures. Nat Protoc. 2007 2:640-6.

Pallan PS, Lubini P, Egli M. A left-handed supramolecular assembly around a right-handed screw axis in the crystal structure of homo-DNA. Chem Commun (Camb). 2007 14:1447-9.

Mori T, Williams DR, Byrne MO, Qin X, Egli M, McHaourab HS, Stewart PL, Johnson CH. Elucidating the Ticking of an In Vitro Circadian Clockwork. PLoS Biol. 2007 5:e93.

Eoff RL, Angel KC, Egli M, Guengerich FP. Molecular basis of selectivity of nucleoside triphosphate incorporation opposite O6-benzylguanine by sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase Dpo4: steady-state and pre-steady-state kinetics and x-ray crystallography of correct and incorrect pairing. J Biol Chem. 2007 282:13573-84.

Egli M, Pallan PS. Insights from crystallographic studies into the structural and pairing properties of nucleic acid analogs and chemically modified DNA and RNA oligonucleotides. Annu Rev Biophys Biomol Struct. 2007 36:281-305.

Loukachevitch LV, Egli M. Crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of Escherichia coli RNase HI-dsRNA complexes. Acta Crystallograph Sect F Struct Biol Cryst Commun. 2007 63:84-8.

Egli M, Lubini P, Pallan PS. The long and winding road to the structure of homo-DNA. Chem Soc Rev. 2007 36:31-45.

Xia J, Noronha A, Toudjarska I, Li F, Akinc A, Braich R, Frank-Kamenetsky M, Rajeev KG, Egli M, Manoharan M. Gene silencing activity of siRNAs with a ribo-difluorotoluyl nucleotide. ACS Chem Biol. 2006 1:176-83.

Luka Z, Pakhomova S, Loukachevitch LV, Egli M, Newcomer ME, Wagner C. 5-methyltetrahydrofolate is bound in intersubunit areas of rat liver folate-binding protein glycine N-methyltransferase. J Biol Chem. 2007 282:4069-75.

Egli M, Pallan PS, Pattanayek R, Wilds CJ, Lubini P, Minasov G, Dobler M, Leumann CJ, Eschenmoser A. Crystal structure of homo-DNA and nature's choice of pentose over hexose in the genetic system. J Am Chem Soc. 2006 128:10847-56.

Pallan PS, von Matt P, Wilds CJ, Altmann KH, Egli M. RNA-Binding affinities and crystal structure of oligonucleotides containing five-atom amide-based backbone structures. Biochemistry. 2006 45:8048-57.

Irimia A, Zang H, Loukachevitch LV, Eoff RL, Guengerich FP, Egli M. Calcium is a cofactor of polymerization but inhibits pyrophosphorolysis by the Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase Dpo4. Biochemistry. 2006 45:5949-56.

Pattanayek R, Williams DR, Pattanayek S, Xu Y, Mori T, Johnson CH, Stewart PL, Egli M. Analysis of KaiA-KaiC protein interactions in the cyano-bacterial circadian clock using hybrid structural methods. EMBO J. 2006 25:2017-28.

Li F, Sarkhel S, Wilds CJ, Wawrzak Z, Prakash TP, Manoharan M, Egli M. 2'-Fluoroarabino- and arabinonucleic acid show different conformations resulting in deviating RNA affinities and processing of their heteroduplexes with RNA by RNase H. Biochemistry. 2006 45:4141-52.

Heilig M, Egli M. Pharmacological treatment of alcohol dependence: target symptoms and target mechanisms. Pharmacol Ther. 2006 111:855-76.

Zang H, Irimia A, Choi JY, Angel KC, Loukachevitch LV, Egli M, Guengerich FP. Efficient and high fidelity incorporation of dCTP opposite 7,8-dihydro-8-oxodeoxyguanosine by Sulfolobus solfataricus DNA polymerase Dpo4. J Biol Chem. 2006 281:2358-72.