Professor Rudolf Konrad Allemann is a Distinguished Research Professor and Pro Vice-Chancellor International and Student Recruitment and Head of the College of Physical Sciences and Engineering at

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

. Allemann joined Cardiff University in 2005, after working at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich and the UK MRC National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill. He was previously Head of the School of Chemistry at Cardiff University until April 2017.

Education and academic career

Allemann earned his Dipl. Chem. ETH (B.S./M.S.) from

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

in 1985. His PhD was carried out at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and ETH Zurich with

Steven A. Benner Steven Albert Benner (born October 23, 1954) has been a professor at Harvard University, ETH Zurich, and the University of Florida where he was the V.T. & Louise Jackson Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. In 2005, he founded The Westheimer In ...

and culminated in the award of a Dr. sc. nat ETH for his thesis 'Evolutionary Guidance as a Tool in Organic Chemistry'. He then moved to the UK to as a

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

and Swiss National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute for Medical Research, before returning to the ETH Zurich in 1992 as a research group leader in Biological Chemistry. He completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

in 1998 ('DNA Recognition by

Eukaryotic Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...

Transcriptional Regulators Regulation of gene expression, or gene regulation, includes a wide range of mechanisms that are used by cells to increase or decrease the production of specific gene products (protein or RNA). Sophisticated programs of gene expression are wide ...

') and then joined the

, first as a Senior Lecturer and then Professor of Chemical Biology. Since 2005 he has been a Distinguished Research Professor at

and in 2017 was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of College of Physical Sciences and Engineering. In 2013 he was elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.

Research

A leading protagonist of modern biological chemistry, Allemann's research bridges the gap between

enzymology Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

and

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

. By exploiting chemical, biophysical, enzymological and molecular biology techniques, he has made contributions towards understanding enzymatic mechanisms. He has pioneered detailed mechanistic investigations of terpene synthases such as

aristolochene synthase The enzyme aristolochene synthase (EC 4.2.3.9) catalyzes the chemical reaction : This enzyme belongs to the family of lyases, specifically those carbon-oxygen lyases acting on phosphates. The systematic name of this enzyme class is (2''E'',6'' ...

, germacrene-A synthase and delta-cadinene synthase, leading to insights into how the diversity of the terpenome (

terpene Terpenes () are a class of natural products consisting of compounds with the formula (C5H8)n for n > 1. Comprising more than 30,000 compounds, these unsaturated hydrocarbons are produced predominantly by plants, particularly conifers. Terpenes ar ...

and terpenoid natural products) is generated from a single precursor. Allemann's work on hydrogen transfer catalysing enzymes including

dihydrofolate reductase Dihydrofolate reductase, or DHFR, is an enzyme that reduces dihydrofolic acid to tetrahydrofolic acid, using NADPH as an electron donor, which can be converted to the kinds of tetrahydrofolate cofactors used in 1-carbon transfer chemistry. In ...

has led to deep new insights into the contributions from

quantum mechanical tunnelling Quantum tunnelling, also known as tunneling (American English, US) is a quantum mechanics, quantum mechanical phenomenon whereby a wavefunction can propagate through a potential barrier. The transmission through the barrier can be finite and de ...

and

protein dynamics Proteins are generally thought to adopt unique structures determined by their amino acid sequences. However, proteins are not strictly static objects, but rather populate ensembles of (sometimes similar) conformations. Transitions between these stat ...

to the enormous rate accelerations typical of Nature’s catalysts. Allemann’s laboratory has been among the pioneers in synthetic biology and has developed innovative applications such as the first generation of designer enzymes, intracellular biophotonic nanoswitches (

photoactivated peptide Photoactivated peptides are modified natural or synthetic peptides the functions of which can be activated with light. This can be done either irreversibly or in a reversible way. Caged peptides which contain photocleavable protecting groups belo ...

s) and optogenetic tools for the control of biological processes in cell culture and in live organisms, as well as pioneering new methodology in synthetic biology for generating novel unnatural terpene-like non-natural natural products with applications in agriculture and healthcare.

References

External links

Professor Rudolf Allemann at Cardiff University

Rudolf Allemann's profile on Biomed Experts

Publications on PubMed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Allemann, Rudolf Living people Swiss biochemists ETH Zurich alumni Harvard University alumni Australian National University alumni National Institute for Medical Research faculty Academics of the University of Birmingham Fellows of the Learned Society of Wales Synthetic biologists Year of birth missing (living people)

Education and academic career

Research

See also

References

External links