Matthew Lloyd

Biography

Lecturer in Molecular Enzymology (University of Bath) Senior Post-Doctoral Research Associate (University of Oxford) Post-Doctoral Research Associate (Brown University) D.Phil. 'Biosynthesis of Clavulanic acid' (University of Oxford) Bsc (hons) Biological Chemistry (University of Leicester)

Research Interest

Research in my group is aimed at understanding the in vivo role of proteins in metabolism in normal cells and diseases such as cancer. The work utilizes a wide range of different techniques, including molecular biology, expression and purification of recombinant proteins, activity assays, chemical rescue, steady-state kinetic analysis, and isolation of products and spectroscopic characterization. Branched-chain fatty acid metabolism With Professor M. D. Threadgill, Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology, University of Bath. Branched-chain fatty acids are common in the human diet, and related structures are common in dietary supplements and occur in some drugs, e.g. ibuprofen (Scheme 1). The most common branched-chain fatty acid in the human diet is phytanic acid, and is found in some meats and dairy products. Due to the presence of a 3-methyl group phytanic acid cannot be degraded by the usual b -oxidation route, and is processed by a preliminary a -oxidation pathway within peroxisomes to give pristanic acid. Defects in this pathway give rise to a rare inherited condition known as Adult Refsum's disease (ARD), whose symptoms include blindness, deafness, loss of sense of smell and taste amongst others. Work in my group has studied one of the defective proteins causing ARD (phytanoyl-CoA 2-hydroxylase, known as PAHX or PhyH), and determined the effects of these changes. We have also studied fatty aldehydes dehydrogenase (ALDH10) , an enzyme involved in converting the chlorophyll sidechain to phytanic acid and the metabolism of a wide range of long-chain fatty alcohols.