Research Interests:

Dr. Hong Guo is a member of CMB and a faculty member at UTK. He focuses on application of quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) approaches for understanding catalytic mechanisms of enzymes and has a number of publications in the area.

Selected current research themes include:

• Environmental remediation: Understanding catalytic mechanisms and actions of key bacterial enzymes (proteins) and synthetic models for the purpose of restoring mercury contaminated environments.
• Bioenergy: Studying synergistic actions of enzyme complexes on cellulose and understanding recalcitrance of cellulose to hydrolysis for developing cost effective strategies of deconstructing cellulosic biomass.
• Catalytic mechanisms of enzymes: A number of enzymes that catalyze biologically important reactions are currently under investigations by the members of CMB. The enzymes and processes studied include (but not limited to) (1) The molecular motor myosin and the mechanism of myosin ATP hydrolysis; (2) Specificities and mechanisms of histone-modifying enzymes in their writing of epigenetic marks; (3) Acid proteases: mechanisms, specificities and activations; (4) Enzymatic deamination of cytidine (cytosine) and adenosine; (5) Restriction enzymes.