Michael Marletta

About

Michael Marletta is a Professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, holding the CH and Annie Li Chair in the Molecular Biology of Diseases. Born in 1951, he earned his A.B. from SUNY College at Fredonia in 1973 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco in 1978. He completed postdoctoral work as an NIH Fellow at MIT and has held faculty positions at MIT, the University of Michigan, and UC Berkeley. Marletta's research focuses on the interface of chemistry and biology, particularly on protein function and enzyme reaction mechanisms, with an emphasis on molecular understanding of complex biological functions. His laboratory has made significant contributions to understanding nitric oxide (NO) signaling in biology, uncovering key aspects of nitric oxide synthase and soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC), and elucidating gas sensing mechanisms involving heme proteins such as H-NOX. Additionally, his work on cellulose degradation has led to the discovery of a new class of copper-dependent hydroxylases called polysaccharide monooxygenases (PMOs), which play a role in biofuel production and are also studied in pathogenic organisms.

Research topics

• Biochemistry
• Chemistry
• Cell biology
• Biophysics
• Physics
• Combinatorial chemistry
• Biology
• Stereochemistry

Selected publications

• Structural Perspectives on the Mechanism of Soluble Guanylate Cyclase Activation

  International Journal of Molecular Sciences · 2021 · 36 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The enzyme soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC) is the prototypical nitric oxide (NO) receptor in humans and other higher eukaryotes and is responsible for transducing the initial NO signal to the secondary messenger cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). Generation of cGMP in turn leads to diverse physiological effects in the cardiopulmonary, vascular, and neurological systems. Given these important downstream effects, sGC has been biochemically characterized in great detail in the four decades sinc…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ceragenins and Antimicrobial Peptides Kill Bacteria through Distinct Mechanisms

  mBio · 2022-01-25 · 31 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  The development of novel antibiotics is essential because the current arsenal of antimicrobials will soon be ineffective due to the widespread occurrence of antibiotic resistance. The development of naturally occurring cationic antimicrobial peptides (CAMPs) for therapeutics to combat antibiotic resistance has been hampered by high production costs and protease sensitivity, among other factors. The ceragenins are a family of synthetic CAMP mimics that kill a broad spectrum of bacterial species b…

  PublisherDOI

• Designer Heme Proteins: Achieving Novel Function with Abiological Heme Analogues

  Accounts of Chemical Research · 2021 · 31 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  ). The exceptional stability of these proteins makes them ideal scaffolds for biomedical applications. Optical oxygen sensing has been accomplished using a phosphorescent ruthenium porphyrin as the artificial heme cofactor. Paramagnetic manganese and gadolinium porphyrins yield high-relaxivity, protein-based MRI contrast agents. A fluorescent phosphorus corrole serves as a heme analogue to produce fluorescent proteins. Iron complexes of nonporphyrin cofactors bound to HasA inhibit the growth of…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Corrole-Substituted Fluorescent Heme Proteins

  Inorganic Chemistry · 2021-01-29 · 23 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Although fluorescent proteins have been utilized for a variety of biological applications, they have several optical limitations, namely weak red and near-infrared emission and exceptionally broad (>200 nm) emission profiles. The photophysical properties of fluorescent proteins can be enhanced through the incorporation of novel cofactors with the desired properties into a stable protein scaffold. To this end, a fluorescent phosphorus corrole that is structurally similar to the native heme cofact…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Nitric oxide signaling controls collective contractions in a colonial choanoflagellate

  Current Biology · 2022-05-02 · 21 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  et la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publis ou non, manant des tablissements d'enseignement et de recherche franais ou trangers, des laboratoires publics ou privs.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Mechanism of fungal polysaccharide monooxygenases

  NSF · $500k · 2015–2018

• NIH Grant R01GM070671

  NIH · $1.2M · 2009

• Activation Mechanism of Soluble Guanylate Cyclase

  NIH · $1.3M · 2019–2022

Frequent coauthors

• Sönke Behrends

  Technische Universität Braunschweig

  137 shared

• Nur Başak Sürmeli

  Izmir Institute of Technology

  130 shared

• Michael Mueller

  Mayo Clinic

  121 shared

• Almaz Aldashev

  121 shared

• John Wharton

  Imperial College London

  121 shared

• Martin R. Wilkins

  Imperial College London

  121 shared

• Nicholas W. Morrell

  121 shared

• Shriram G. Bhosle

  121 shared

Labs

• Michael Marletta LaboratoryPI

Education

• Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Chemistry

  UCSF Medical Center

  1977

• A.B., Chemistry and Biology

  SUNY Fredonia

  1973

Awards & honors

• George H. Hitchings Award, Innovative Methods in Drug Discov…
• Faculty recognition Award, The University of Michigan (1992)
• Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award, S.U.N.Y. College at Fr…
• MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (1995)
• S.U.N.Y. Alumni Honor Roll (1996)

Similar researchers at University of California, Berkeley

• Peidong Yangh-262
• Jennifer A. Doudnah-230
• Jeffrey R. Longh-189