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I did my graduate work with Professor Peter A. Tipton in the University of Missouri-Columbia. The focus of these studies was the kinetics and mechanism of urate oxidase. Urate oxidase is an unusual enzyme because it does not contain transition metals or redox cofactors, yet it catalyzes the oxidation of a singlet organic molecule using molecular oxygen. We determined the kinetic mechanism of this reaction, identified the true enzymatic product, and elucidated the decomposition pathway of this unstable product to the final stable metabolite. These mechanistic and rapid kinetics studies lead to the proposal that the oxidation of urate occurs via 5-hydroperoxy intermediate.
