Sean Moran's headshot

Sean Moran

Associate Professor
smoran@chem.siu.edu
618-453-6545
Biochemistry, Chemistry

Education

  • B.Sc., McGill University
  • Ph.D., Columbia University
  • Postdoc, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Oberlin College; University of Wisconsin-Madison

Research Interests

Use of infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy, protein semisynthesis and site-specific labeling techniques to:

  1. Examine the structures and physical properties of β-sheet rich biological materials and use this information in biomaterials design.
  2. Investigate the functional roles of fast (fs-ps) vibrational dynamics in the functions of photoactive proteins, electron transfer proteins and enzymes.

Awards

  • NSF-GK12 Teaching Fellowship 2004-2006, Columbia University, New York, NY
  • Jack Miller Award 2004, Columbia University, New York, NY
  • James McGill Award 2000, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec
  • John W. Hooper Scholarship 2000, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

Selected Publications

Moran , S.D.and Zanni, M.T. How to get Insights into Amyloid Structure and Formation from Infrared Spectroscopy Invited Perspective Article to J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2014, 5, 1984-1993.

Buchanan, L.E.; Carr, J.K.; Fluitt, A.M.; Hoganson, A.J.; Moran, S.D.; DePablo, J.J.; Skinner, J.L.; Zanni, M.T. Structure motif of polyglutamine amyloid fibrils discerned with mixed-isotope infrared spectroscopy Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2014, 111, 5796-5801.

Moran, S.D.; Zhang, T.O.; Zanni, M.T. An alternative structural isoform in amyloid-like aggregates formed from thermally denatured human γD-crystallin Protein Science 2014, 23, 321-331.

Lam, A.; Moran, S.D.; Preketes, N.; Zhang, T.O.; Zanni, M.T.; Mukamel, S.Study of the γD- Crystallin Protein Using Two-dimensional Infrared (2D IR) Spectroscopy: Experiment and Simulation, J. Phys. Chem. B. 2013, 117, 15436-15443.

Moran, S.D.; Zhang, T.; Decatur, S.M.; Zanni, M.T. Amyloid Fiber Formation in Human γD- crystallin Induced by UV-B Photodamage, Biochemistry 2013, 52, 6169-6181.

Woys, A.M.; Mukherjee, S. Skoff, D.R.; Moran, S.D.; Zanni, M.T. A Strongly Absorbing Class of Non-Natural Labels for Probing Protein Electrostatics and Solvation with FTIR and 2D IR Spectroscopies, J.Phys. Chem. B. 2013, 117, 5009-5018.

Moran, S.D.; Decatur, S.M.; Zanni, M.T. Structural and Sequence Analysis of the Human γD- Crystallin Amyloid Fibril Core Using 2D IR spectroscopy, Segmental 13C Labeling, and Mass Spectrometry, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 18410-18416.

Moran, S.D.; Woys, A.M.; Buchanan, L.E.; Bixby, E.; Decatur, S.M.; Zanni, M.T. Two-Dimensional IR Spectroscopy and Segmental 13C Labeling Reveals the Domain Structure of Human γD-Crystallin Amyloid Fibrils, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A., 2012, 109(9), 3329-3334.
This work was highlighted in C&E News (SciCon, Vol. 90, Issue 7, p. 37)

Westerlund, K.; Moran, S.D.; Privett, H.K.; Hay, S.; Jarvet, J.; Gibney, B.R.; Tommos, C. Making a Single-Chain Four-Helix Bundle For Redox Chemistry Studies, Protein Engineering , Design, and Selection, 2008, 21, 645-652.

Moran Group Research

NCBI MyBibliography