C. Denise Okafor

Role: 
Alumni
Location: 
Georgia Institute of Technology, IBB
Education: 

Ph.D. in Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 2015 M.S. in Chemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 2010 B.S. in Biomedical Chemistry, Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, OK 2007

Research Interests: 

Divalent cations are necessary to facilitate folding and activity of RNA. While RNA relies heavily on Magnesium for activity and favors it above all other biological cations, work in our lab has shown that on an early, anoxic earth, RNA could have partnered with Iron(II) instead. My work centers on characterizing structure and function of RNA interactions with Mg(II) and with Fe(II).

Selected publications: 

6. Okafor, CD, Vander Wood, D, O'Neill, EB, Williams, LD, and Hud, NV (2015) “Magnesium Binding to Duplex (A-form) RNA: Tighter than we Thought”, submitted. 5. Gulen, B, Petrov, AS, Okafor, CD, Vander Wood, D, O'Neill, EB, Hud, NV, and Williams, LD (2015) "Ribosomal Small Subunit Domains Radiate from a Central Core ", submitted. 4. Hsiao, C, Chou, I-C, Okafor, CD, Bowman, JC, O'Neill, EB, Athavale, SS, Petrov, AS, Hud, NV, Wartell, RM, Harvey, SC, and Williams, LD (2013) "Iron(II) Plus RNA Can Catalyze Electron Transfer", Nature Chemistry 5, 525-528. 3. Petrov, AS, Bernier, CR, Hsiao, CL, Okafor, CD, Tannenbaum, E, Stern, J, Gaucher, E, Schneider, D, Hud, NV, Harvey, SC, and Williams, LD (2012) "RNA-Magnesium-Protein Interactions in Large Ribosomal Subunit", J. Phys. Chem. B 116, 8113-8120. 2. Engelhart, AE, Cafferty, BJ, Okafor, CD, Chen, MC, Williams, LD, Lynn, DG, and Hud, NV (2012) "Nonenzymatic Ligation of DNA with a Reversible Step and a Final Linkage That Can Be Used in PCR", ChemBioChem 13, 1121-1124. 1. Buckley, R, Enekwa-Okafor, CD, Williams, LD, and Hud, NV (2011) "Molecular Recognition of Watson–Crick-Like Purine–Purine Base Pairs", ChemBioChem 12, 2155-2158 [10.1002/cbic.201100375].