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R. David Britt is the Winston Ko Chair and Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis. Britt uses electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to study metalloenzymes and enzymes containing organic radicals in their active sites. Britt is the recipient of multiple awards for his research, including the Bioinorganic Chemistry Award in 2019 and the Bruker Prize in 2015 from the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has received a Gold Medal from the International EPR Society (2014), and the Zavoisky Award from the Kazan Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2018). He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Early life and education

Britt studied at the North Carolina State University, graduating with his B.S. in Physics in 1978. He completed his graduate studies in Physics at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with his Ph.D. in 1988. At Berkeley, Britt worked in the laboratory of Prof. Melvin P. Klein as a NSF Graduate Research Fellow on the construction of a pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer. Britt was able to use the electron spin echo envelope modulation (ESEEM) technique with this spectrometer to study the molecular structure of the manganese-containing oxygen-evolving complex (OEC). Understanding of the OEC could improve our understanding of the mechanisms of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis, and could lead to the development of artificial photosynthesis.

Independent career

Britt began his independent career at the University of California, Davis in 1989 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1994, and to full Professor in 1997. Since 2005, he has served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Davis, and 2018 he was named the Winston Ko Professorship in Science Leadership.

Research

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is a technique that measures the relaxation of unpaired electron spins in an applied magnetic field. This technique is particularly useful for studying the mechanism of catalysis of metalloenzymes and enzymes containing organic radicals, as these mechanistic intermediates often contain unpaired electrons and thus give a distinct EPR signal. Enzymatic systems that the Britt group studies include the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II, the H₂-producing hydrogenases, nitrogenases, and radical SAM enzymes.

With then-postdoctoral scholar Stefan Stoll, Britt developed EasySpin, an open-source MATLAB software toolbox for simulating and fitting a wide range of EPR spectra.

Britt has collaborated with many synthetic chemists and biologists, including Daniel G. Nocera, Philip P. Power, Michael A. Marletta, Elizabeth M. Nolan, William H. Casey, and Judith P. Klinman.

References

1. Oskin, Becky (2018-05-30). "R. David Britt Named as Winston Ko Professor in Science Leadership". UC Davis College of Letters and Science. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
2. ^ "R. David Britt receives 2018 Zavoisky Award". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
3. ^ "R. David Britt". Chemistry. 2016-10-27. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
4. Britt, Ralph David (1988). Electron spin echo spectroscopy of photosynthesis (Ph.D. thesis). United States – California: University of California, Berkeley.
5. Britt, R. David; Zimmermann, Jean Luc; Sauer, Kenneth; Klein, Melvin P. (1989). "Ammonia binds to the catalytic manganese of the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II. Evidence by electron spin-echo envelope modulation spectroscopy". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 111 (10): 3522–3532. doi:10.1021/ja00192a006. ISSN 0002-7863.
6. Britt, R. David; Sauer, Kenneth; Klein, Melvin P.; Knaff, David B.; Kriauciunas, Aidas; Yu, Chang An; Yu, Linda; Malkin, Richard (1991-02-19). "Electron spin echo envelope modulation spectroscopy supports the suggested coordination of two histidine ligands to the Rieske iron-sulfur centers of the cytochrome b6f complex on spinach and the cytochrome bc1 complexes of Rhodospirillum rubrum, Rhodobacter sphaeroides R-26, and bovine heart mitochondria". Biochemistry. 30 (7): 1892–1901. doi:10.1021/bi00221a023. ISSN 0006-2960. PMID 1847076.
7. Britt, R. David; Derose, Victoria J.; Yachandra, Vittal K.; Kim, Dennis H.; Sauer, Kenneth; Klein, Melvin P. (1990), Baltscheffsky, M. (ed.), "Pulsed EPR Studies of the Manganese Center of the Oxygen-Evolving Complex of Photosystem II", Current Research in Photosynthesis: Proceedings of the VIIIth International Conference on Photosynthesis Stockholm, Sweden, August 6–11, 1989, Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 769–772, doi:10.1007/978-94-009-0511-5_176, ISBN 978-94-009-0511-5, retrieved 2021-05-23
8. ^ "R. David Britt CV" (PDF).
9. McAlpin, J. Gregory; Stich, Troy A.; Casey, William H.; Britt, R. David (2012-11-01). "Comparison of cobalt and manganese in the chemistry of water oxidation". Coordination Chemistry Reviews. 256 (21–22): 2445–2452. doi:10.1016/j.ccr.2012.04.039. ISSN 0010-8545.
10. Britt, R. David; Peloquin, Jeffrey M.; Campbell, Kristy A. (2000). "Pulsed and Parallel-Polarization EPR Characterization of the Photosystem II Oxygen-Evolving Complex". Annual Review of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure. 29 (1): 463–495. doi:10.1146/annurev.biophys.29.1.463. ISSN 1056-8700. PMID 10940256.
11. Britt, R. David; Rao, Guodong; Tao, Lizhi (2020). "Bioassembly of complex iron–sulfur enzymes: hydrogenases and nitrogenases". Nature Reviews Chemistry. 4 (10): 542–549. doi:10.1038/s41570-020-0208-x. ISSN 2397-3358. PMC 8023223. PMID 33829110.
12. Stich, Troy A.; Myers, William K.; Britt, R. David (2014-08-19). "Paramagnetic Intermediates Generated by Radical S-Adenosylmethionine (SAM) Enzymes". Accounts of Chemical Research. 47 (8): 2235–2243. doi:10.1021/ar400235n. ISSN 0001-4842. PMC 4139163. PMID 24991701.
13. Stoll, Stefan; Britt, R. David (2009-07-28). "General and efficient simulation of pulse EPR spectra". Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 11 (31): 6614–6625. Bibcode:2009PCCP...11.6614S. doi:10.1039/B907277B. ISSN 1463-9084. PMID 19639136.
14. McAlpin, J. Gregory; Surendranath, Yogesh; Dincǎ, Mircea; Stich, Troy A.; Stoian, Sebastian A.; Casey, William H.; Nocera, Daniel G.; Britt, R. David (2010-05-26). "EPR Evidence for Co(IV) Species Produced During Water Oxidation at Neutral pH". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 132 (20): 6882–6883. doi:10.1021/ja1013344. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 20433197.
15. Merrill, W. Alexander; Stich, Troy A.; Brynda, Marcin; Yeagle, Gregory J.; Fettinger, James C.; De Hont, Raymond; Reiff, William M.; Schulz, Charles E.; Britt, R. David; Power, Philip P. (2009-09-09). "Direct Spectroscopic Observation of Large Quenching of First-Order Orbital Angular Momentum with Bending in Monomeric, Two-Coordinate Fe(II) Primary Amido Complexes and the Profound Magnetic Effects of the Absence of Jahn− and Renner−Teller Distortions in Rigorously Linear Coordination". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 131 (35): 12693–12702. doi:10.1021/ja903439t. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 2768349. PMID 19670870.
16. Stoll, Stefan; NejatyJahromy, Yaser; Woodward, Joshua J.; Ozarowski, Andrew; Marletta, Michael A.; Britt, R. David (2010-08-25). "Nitric Oxide Synthase Stabilizes the Tetrahydrobiopterin Cofactor Radical by Controlling Its Protonation State". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 132 (33): 11812–11823. doi:10.1021/ja105372s. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 20669954.
17. Gagnon, Derek M.; Brophy, Megan Brunjes; Bowman, Sarah E. J.; Stich, Troy A.; Drennan, Catherine L.; Britt, R. David; Nolan, Elizabeth M. (2015-03-04). "Manganese Binding Properties of Human Calprotectin under Conditions of High and Low Calcium: X-ray Crystallographic and Advanced Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Analysis". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 137 (8): 3004–3016. doi:10.1021/ja512204s. hdl:1721.1/110432. ISSN 0002-7863. PMC 4354957. PMID 25597447.
18. McAlpin, J. Gregory; Stich, Troy A.; Ohlin, C. André; Surendranath, Yogesh; Nocera, Daniel G.; Casey, William H.; Britt, R. David (2011-10-05). "Electronic Structure Description of a [Co(III)3Co(IV)O4] Cluster: A Model for the Paramagnetic Intermediate in Cobalt-Catalyzed Water Oxidation". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 133 (39): 15444–15452. doi:10.1021/ja202320q. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 21913664.
19. Wecksler, Stephen R.; Stoll, Stefan; Tran, Ha; Magnusson, Olafur T.; Wu, Shu-pao; King, David; Britt, R. David; Klinman, Judith P. (2009-10-27). "Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Biogenesis: Demonstration That PqqE from Klebsiella pneumoniae Is a Radical S-Adenosyl-l-methionine Enzyme". Biochemistry. 48 (42): 10151–10161. doi:10.1021/bi900918b. ISSN 0006-2960. PMC 2814799. PMID 19746930.

• University of California, Davis faculty
• North Carolina State University alumni
• University of California, Berkeley alumni
• Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Fellows of the Royal Society of Chemistry
• 21st-century American chemists
• Living people