Brian Gibney

Brian Gibney is a leading researcher in the design of synthetic proteins containing metal ions. His current research is centered on the role of hemes in heart disease, and on the role of zinc in controlling gene expression in human cancer, and the design of [4Fe-4S] cluster proteins for nanobiochemistry. His investigative tool is to measure the thermodynamics of metal-peptide and metal-protein interactions to provide the basis for improvements in the computational design of metalloproteins to the point where the design of metalloenzymes from scratch in not just possible, but routine.

A leader in the field of de novo metalloprotein design, he has authored over 70 research papers and co-organized the first Protein and Metalloprotein Design Conference, the first Brooklyn Frontiers in Science Public Lecture and the 2023 Middle Atlantic Regional Meeting of the ACS, which was held at the Graduate Center. He has been named the Jacques Edward Levy Professor of Analytical Chemistry, presented the Paul Saltman Memorial Lecture, named a Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, and named an American Chemical Society Fellow.

He served as executive officer of the CUNY Graduate Center Ph.D. Program in Chemistry from 2014 to 2020 and was the founding director of the M.S. Program in Nanoscience. He currently serves as the Interim Dean for the Sciences of the CUNY Graduate Center. He is on the board of directors of the New York Local Section of the American Chemical Society.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Artificial Photosynthesis : Design of Biomimetic Solar Cells.

Heme proteins are one of the most versatile and visible class of proteins in biochemistry and serve functions ranging from oxygen transport to drug metabolism. With respect to heme proteins involved in cardiovascular disease and stroke, the Gibney laboratory is focused on understanding the structure-function relationships that are involved in the modulation of heme protein electrochemical properties that lead to the generation of damaging reactive oxygen species (ROS) resulting in oxidative stress. We design heme proteins, also called heme protein maquettes, from first principles to test the fundamental engineering principles of natural heme proteins, e.g. cytochromes, deoxymyoglobin and cytochrome c oxidase. Our main investigative approach is the equilibrium analysis of heme protein thermodynamics. This approach provides keen insight into how various factors influence the stability of ferric and ferrous heme proteins and modulate the resultant electrochemistry.