Gloria Ferreira, Ph.D. Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine E-mail: gferreir@hsc.usf.edu Phone: (813) 974-5797

Training
Licenciatura in Environmental Engineering (5 year University degree), University of Aveiro, Aveiro, Portugal, 1981.
Ph.D., University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, U.S.A., 1986. Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biological Chemistry, The Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, U.S.A., 1987 - 1990.

Research Interests
The research program in our laboratory involves the biochemistry and molecular regulation of the biosynthesis of heme, the major component of proteins such as hemoglobin, myoglobin and cytochromes. In humans mutations in the genes encoding the proteins/enzymes associated with the synthesis and regulation of heme can lead to different disorders, including cancer. The research in our laboratory is aimed at understanding how enzymes of the heme biosynthetic pathway are organized and accomplish their functions. We have also been investigating the mechanisms of regulation of heme biosynthesis in differentiating erythrocytes, at both levels of transcription and translation.

Search for publications by:   
This search will be conducted at the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) and PubMed.

Selected Publications
Gong, J., Hunter, G. A., and Ferreira, G. C (1998) Aspartate-279 in Aminolevulinate Synthase Affects Enzyme Catalysis Through Enhancing the Function of the Pyridoxal Phosphate Cofactor. Biochemistry 37, 3509-3517.

Tan, D., Barber, M. J., and Ferreira, G. C. (1998) The Role of Tyrosine 121 in Cofactor Binding of 5-Aminolevulinate Synthase. Protein Science 7, 1208-1213.

Hunter, G. A., and Ferreira, G. C (1999) Lysine-313 of 5-Aminolevulinate Synthase Acts as a General Base During Formation of the Quinonoid Reaction Intermediates. Biochemistry 38, 3711-3718.

Hunter, G. A., and Ferreira, G. C (1999) Pre-Steady State Reaction of 5-Aminolevulinate Synthase: Evidence for a Rate-Determining Product Release. J. Biol. Chem. 274, 12222-12228.

Franco, R., Ma, J.-G., Lu, Y., Ferreira, G. C., and Shelnutt, J. A. (2000) Porphyrin Interactions with Wild Type and Mutant Mouse Ferrochelatase. Biochemistry 39, 2517-2529.

Kramer, M. F., Gunaratne, P. and Ferreira, G. C. (2000) Transcriptional Regulation of the Murine Erythroid-specific 5-Aminolevulinate Synthase Gene. Gene 247, 153-166.

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