Jin Kim Montclare
Assistant Professor


General Information

Tel: 3243
Room: RH 801
Email: jmontcla@poly.edu
Website: Montclare Laboratory



Areas of Research

• Chemical Biology or Biological Chemistry
• Protein Design and Engineering
• Biological Materials
• Biocatalyst Design

My Research

Nature has perfected the synthesis of tailor-made biomolecular machines that allow for the proper function of organisms. Elucidation of protein biosynthetic and evolutionary pathways facilitates the development of functional molecules with precise structures. This, in combination with the chemist's ability to produce diversity beyond nucleic acids and proteins, offers a powerful tool for the design and synthesis of new functional macromolecules. Research in the Montclare lab explores the tolerance of biosynthetic and evolutionary pathways to the presence of new chemical substrates not provided by nature with the specific aim of designing novel biocatalysts and polymeric materials relevant to industry and medicine. The research tools of chemistry, engineering, biology and materials science will be employed in this endeavor.

Selected Publications

• Tatyana Panchenko, Wan Wen Zhu & Jin K. Montclare, Influence of global fluorination on chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity and stability. Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2006) 94, 921-930.
  
  
• Jin K. Montclare & David A. Tirrell, Evolving proteins of novel composition. Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2006) 45, 4518-4521.
  
  
• Jin K. Montclare & Alanna Schepartz, Miniature homeodomains: High specificity without an N-terminal arm. Journal of the American Chemical Society (2003) 125, 3416-3417.
  
  
• Jin K. Montclare , Leslie S. Sloan & A. Schepartz, Electrostatic control of half-site spacing preferences by the cyclic AMP Response Element Binding Protein: Selectivity at the expense of affinity. Nucleic Acids Research, (2001) 29, 3311-3319.

Selected Awards

• 2007 AFOSR Young Investigator Award
• 2006 Wechsler Award for Excellence
• 2006 Othmer Junior Fellow, Othmer Institute
• 2003-2005 National Institute of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship
• 1997-2000 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship
• 1997-2000 Pfizer Fellowship
• 1996-1997 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship

Education

• 2005
  California Institute of Technology, Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Postdoctoral fellow
• 2003
  Yale University, Department of Chemistry, Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry
• 2001
  Yale University, Department of Chemistry, M.S. in Bioorganic Chemistry
• 1997
  Fordham University, B.S. with Chemistry major, Philosophy minor, summa cum laude

New students and postdoctoral applicants interested in our research are welcome to contact Dr. Montclare at jmontcla@poly.edu.