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Bio

Kevin Weiss is the Bio-Deuteration Laboratory technical lead and laboratory manager for the Center for Structural Molecular Biology laboratories at the SNS. He received his B.S. in Pharmacy from Ohio Northern University and his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from the Ohio State University. Following graduation, his research focus shifted from small molecule organic synthesis to structural biology while he held successive postdoctoral appointments at Vanderbilt University (advisor: Walter Chazin) and ORNL (advisor: Dean Myles). His current research interests are in fed-batch fermentation, protein expression and purification, and deuterium labeling for neutron structural biology.

Selected Publications

Leite, W. C.; Weiss, K. L.; Phillips, G.; Zhang, Q.; Qian, S.; Tsutakawa, S. E.; Coates, L.; O’Neill, H. Conformational Dynamics in the Interaction of SARS-CoV-2 Papain-like Protease with Human Interferon-Stimulated Gene 15 Protein. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2021, 12 (23), 5608–5615. .

Azadmanesh, J.; Lutz, W. E.; Coates, L.; Weiss, K. L.; Borgstahl, G. E. O. Direct Detection of Coupled Proton and Electron Transfers in Human Manganese Superoxide Dismutase. Nat Commun 2021, 12 (1), 2079. .

Murray, D. T.; Weiss, K. L.; Stanley, C. B.; Nagy, G.; Stroupe, M. E. Small-Angle Neutron Scattering Solution Structures of NADPH-Dependent Sulfite Reductase. Journal of Structural Biology 2021, 213 (2), 107724. .

Kneller, D. W.; Phillips, G.; Weiss, K. L.; Zhang, Q.; Coates, L.; Kovalevsky, A. Direct Observation of Protonation State Modulation in SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease upon Inhibitor Binding with Neutron Crystallography. J. Med. Chem. 2021, 64 (8), 4991–5000. .

Kneller, D. W.; Phillips, G.; Weiss, K. L.; Pant, S.; Zhang, Q.; O’Neill, H. M.; Coates, L.; Kovalevsky, A. Unusual Zwitterionic Catalytic Site of SARS–CoV-2 Main Protease Revealed by Neutron Crystallography. Journal of Biological Chemistry 2020, 295 (50), 17365–17373. .

Dajnowicz, S.; Cheng, Y.; Daemen, L. L.; Weiss, K. L.; Gerlits, O.; Mueser, T. C.; Kovalevsky, A. Substrate Binding Stiffens Aspartate Aminotransferase by Altering the Enzyme Picosecond Vibrational Dynamics. ACS Omega 2020, 5 (30), 18787–18797. .

Phillips, R. S.; Craig, S.; Kovalevsky, A.; Gerlits, O.; Weiss, K.; Iorgu, A. I.; Heyes, D. J.; Hay, S. Pressure and Temperature Effects on the Formation of Aminoacrylate Intermediates of Tyrosine Phenol-Lyase Demonstrate Reaction Dynamics. ACS Catal. 2020, 10 (3), 1692–1703. .

Saxena, R.; Stanley, C. B.; Kumar, P.; Cuneo, M. J.; Patil, D.; Jha, J.; Weiss, K. L.; Chattoraj, D. K.; Crooke, E. A Nucleotide-Dependent Oligomerization of the Escherichia Coli Replication Initiator DnaA Requires Residue His136 for Remodeling of the Chromosomal Origin. Nucleic Acids Research 2019, gkz939. .

Gerlits, O.; Weiss, K. L.; Blakeley, M. P.; Veglia, G.; Taylor, S. S.; Kovalevsky, A. Zooming in on Protons: Neutron Structure of Protein Kinase A Trapped in a Product Complex. Science Advances 2019, 5 (3), eaav0482. .

Langan, P. S.; Vandavasi, V. G.; Weiss, K. L.; Afonine, P. V.; el Omari, K.; Duman, R.; Wagner, A.; Coates, L. Anomalous X-Ray Diffraction Studies of Ion Transport in K+ Channels. Nature Communications 2018, 9 (1). .

Kovalevsky, A.; Aggarwal, M.; Velazquez, H.; Cuneo, M. J.; Blakeley, M. P.; Weiss, K. L.; Smith, J. C.; Fisher, S. Z.; McKenna, R. “To Be or Not to Be” Protonated: Atomic Details of Human Carbonic Anhydrase-Clinical Drug Complexes by Neutron Crystallography and Simulation. Structure 2018, 26 (3), 383–390. .

Langan, P. S.; Vandavasi, V. G.; Cooper, S. J.; Weiss, K. L.; Ginell, S. L.; Parks, J. M.; Coates, L. Substrate Binding Induces Conformational Changes in a Class A β-Lactamase That Prime It for Catalysis. ACS Catal. 2018, 8 (3), 2428–2437. .

Dajnowicz, S.; Johnston, R. C.; Parks, J. M.; Blakeley, M. P.; Keen, D. A.; Weiss, K. L.; Gerlits, O.; Kovalevsky, A.; Mueser, T. C. Direct Visualization of Critical Hydrogen Atoms in a Pyridoxal 5’-Phosphate Enzyme. Nat. Commun. 2017, 8 (1), 955. .

Vandavasi, V. G.; Langan, P. S.; Weiss, K. L.; Parks, J. M.; Cooper, J. B.; Ginell, S. L.; Coates, L. Active-Site Protonation States in an Acyl-Enzyme Intermediate of a Class A β-Lactamase with a Monobactam Substrate. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2017, 61 (1), e01636-16, e01636-16. .

Gerlits, O.; Wymore, T.; Das, A.; Shen, C.-H.; Parks, J. M.; Smith, J. C.; Weiss, K. L.; Keen, D. A.; Blakeley, M. P.; Louis, J. M.; Langan, P.; Weber, I. T.; Kovalevsky, A. Long-Range Electrostatics-Induced Two-Proton Transfer Captured by Neutron Crystallography in an Enzyme Catalytic Site. Angew. Chem. 2016, 55 (16), 4924–4927. .

Vandavasi, V. G.; Weiss, K. L.; Cooper, J. B.; Erskine, P. T.; Tomanicek, S. J.; Ostermann, A.; Schrader, T. E.; Ginell, S. L.; Coates, L. Exploring the Mechanism of β-Lactam Ring Protonation in the Class A β-Lactamase Acylation Mechanism Using Neutron and X-Ray Crystallography. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 2016, 59 (1), 474–479. .

Publications