Chemistry and Biochemistry Seminar Series: Dr. Matthew Dent, Wayne State University

TITLE: “Carbon monoxide sensing, selectivity, and signaling in microbes”

ABSTRACT: Carbon monoxide (CO) is both a lethal environmental toxin and a biologically active signaling molecule with emerging therapeutic potential. Generated by nearly all organisms on Earth as an enzymatic by-product of heme breakdown, CO influences cellular processes including inflammation, cell proliferation, and apoptosis. CO binds tightly to ferrous heme iron, and this metal-ligand binding has largely shaped our understanding of CO as a poison and signal. While this coordination chemistry is well understood, specific protein targets and structural motifs that mediate CO-dependent signal transduction remain elusive. This talk will focus on our efforts to bridge this gap through the study of CO sensor proteins from the microbial world using a combination of protein biochemistry, spectroscopy, and bioinformatics.

BIO: Matt Dent is an Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at Wayne State University, where he started his lab in 2024. Before coming to Detroit, he trained as a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he combined bioinorganic and biophysical spectroscopic tools to interrogate the functional properties of hemoproteins. As a NIH postdoctoral research fellow in the Heart, Lung, Blood, and Vascular Medicine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, Matt leveraged his fundamental biochemistry background to develop novel carbon monoxide trapping agents as therapeutic scavengers to treat acute carbon monoxide poisoning. In his independent lab, Matt is interested in teasing apart the highly interconnected signaling pathways of gaseous bioregulators, such as nitric oxide, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide, in organisms ranging from microbes to mammals. His lab is working to develop new chemical biology tools to sense these molecules in living cells and organisms, while also identifying and characterizing novel gas receptor proteins using biochemical and inorganic spectroscopy tools.