Francis I. Valiyaveetil, Ph.D.

  • Professor of Chemical Physiology and Biochemistry, School of Medicine
  • Neuroscience Graduate Program, School of Medicine
  • Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine

Biography

Probing Functional Mechanisms in Channels and Transporters

We are investigating functional mechanisms that govern molecular recognition and conformational dynamics in ion channels and transporters.  In our investigations, we use a multidisciplinary approach that combines unnatural mutagenesis with structural studies using x-ray crystallography.  We also carry out functional measurements using electrophysiology and investigate protein dynamics using EPR and fluorescence spectroscopy.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S., 1990, Chemistry, University of Mumbai, India
    • M.S., 1992, Biotechnology, IIT-Mumbai, India
    • Ph.D., 1999, Biomolecular Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Fellowship

    • 2005 Postdoctoral (Molecular Neurobiology and Peptide Chemistry), Rockefeller University

Areas of interest

  • Unnatural amino acid mutagenesis of membrane proteins
  • Ion conduction and voltage gating in K+ channels
  • Transport mechanism in glutamate transporters
  • Folding of membrane proteins

Honors and awards

  • 2007 - Pew Scholar Award
  • 1992 - Cremer Research Fellowship

Publications

Publications

  • A facile approach for incorporating tyrosine esters to probe ion-binding sites and backbone hydrogen bonds

    Journal of Biological Chemistry
    1. Ravikumar Reddi
    2. Satyaki Chatterjee
    3. Kimberly Matulef
    4. Andrew Gustafson
    5. Lujia Gao
    6. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Water inside the Selectivity Filter of a K+ Ion Channel

    Journal of the American Chemical Society
    1. Matthew J. Ryan
    2. Lujia Gao
    3. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
    4. Alexei A. Kananenka
    5. Martin T. Zanni
  • Probing Ion Configurations in the KcsA Selectivity Filter with Single-Isotope Labels and 2D IR Spectroscopy

    Journal of the American Chemical Society
    1. Matthew J. Ryan
    2. Lujia Gao
    3. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
    4. Martin T. Zanni
    5. Alexei A. Kananenka
  • Distinct roles of the Na+ binding sites in the allosteric coupling mechanism of the glutamate transporter homolog, GltPh

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    1. Erika A. Riederer
    2. Pierre Moënne-Loccoz
    3. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Structural basis for C-type inactivation in a Shaker family voltage-gated K+ channel

    Science Advances
    1. Ravikumar Reddi
    2. Kimberly Matulef
    3. Erika A. Riederer
    4. Matthew R. Whorton
    5. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Structures of Gating Intermediates in a K+ channell

    Journal of molecular biology
    1. Ravikumar Reddi
    2. Kimberly Matulef
    3. Erika Riederer
    4. Pierre Moenne-Loccoz
    5. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • A Shared Mechanism for the Folding of Voltage-Gated K + Channels

    Biochemistry
    1. Sarah K. McDonald
    2. Talya S. Levitz
    3. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Investigation of the allosteric coupling mechanism in a glutamate transporter homolog via unnatural amino acid mutagenesis

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    1. Erika A. Riederer
    2. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • A facile approach for the in vitro assembly of multimeric membrane transport proteins

    eLife
    1. Erika A. Riederer
    2. Paul J. Focke
    3. Elka R. Georgieva
    4. Nurunisa Akyuz
    5. Kimberly Matulef
    6. Peter P. Borbat
    7. Jack H. Freed
    8. Scott C. Blanchard
    9. Olga Boudker
    10. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Main-chain mutagenesis reveals intrahelical coupling in an ion channel voltage-sensor

    Nature communications
    1. Daniel T. Infield
    2. Kimberly Matulef
    3. Jason D. Galpin
    4. Kin Lam
    5. Emad Tajkhorshid
    6. Christopher A. Ahern
    7. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Probing the Effects of Gating on the Ion Occupancy of the K+ Channel Selectivity Filter Using Two-Dimensional Infrared Spectroscopy

    Journal of the American Chemical Society
    1. Huong T. Kratochvil
    2. Michał Maj
    3. Kimberly Matulef
    4. Alvin W. Annen
    5. Jared Ostmeyer
    6. Eduardo Perozo
    7. Benoît Roux
    8. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
    9. Martin T. Zanni
  • Combining in Vitro Folding with Cell Free Protein Synthesis for Membrane Protein Expression

    Biochemistry
    1. Paul J. Focke
    2. Christopher Hein
    3. Beate Hoffmann
    4. Kimberly Matulef
    5. Frank Bernhard
    6. Volker Dötsch
    7. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Individual Ion Binding Sites in the K+ Channel Play Distinct Roles in C-type Inactivation and in Recovery from Inactivation

    Structure
    1. Kimberly Matulef
    2. Alvin W. Annen
    3. Jay C. Nix
    4. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Instantaneous ion configurations in the K+ion channel selectivity filter revealed by 2D IR spectroscopy

    Science
    1. Huong T. Kratochvil
    2. Joshua K. Carr
    3. Kimberly Matulef
    4. Alvin W. Annen
    5. Hui Li
    6. Michał Maj
    7. Jared Ostmeyer
    8. Arnaldo L. Serrano
    9. H. Raghuraman
    10. Sean D. Moran
    11. J. L. Skinner
    12. Eduardo Perozo
    13. Benoît Roux
    14. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
    15. Martin T. Zanni
  • Engineering the glutamate transporter homologue GltPh using protein semisynthesis

    Biochemistry
    1. Paul J. Focke
    2. Alvin W. Annen
    3. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Ion-binding properties of a K+ channel selectivity filter in different conformations

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    1. Shian Liu
    2. Paul J. Focke
    3. Kimberly Matulef
    4. Xuelin Bian
    5. Pierre Moënne-Loccoz
    6. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
    7. Steve W. Lockless
  • Semisynthetic K+ channels show that the constricted conformation of the selectivity filter is not the C-type inactivated state

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    1. Prasanna K. Devaraneni
    2. Alexander G. Komarov
    3. Corey A. Costantino
    4. Jordan J. Devereaux
    5. Kimberly Matulef
    6. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Using protein backbone mutagenesis to dissect the link between ion occupancy and C-Type inactivation in K+ channels

    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
    1. Kimberly Matulef
    2. Alexander G. Komarov
    3. Corey A. Costantino
    4. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • In vitro folding of K vAP, a voltage-gated K + channel

    Biochemistry
    1. Prasanna K. Devaraneni
    2. Jordan J. Devereaux
    3. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Semisynthesis of NaK, a Na+ and K+ conducting ion channel

    Biochemistry
    1. Kellie M. Linn
    2. Mehabaw G. Derebe
    3. Youxing Jiang
    4. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Studies of ion channels using expressed protein ligation

    Current Opinion in Chemical Biology
    1. Paul J. Focke
    2. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Modular strategy for the semisynthesis of a K+ channel

    ACS chemical biology
    1. Alexander G. Komarov
    2. Kellie M. Linn
    3. Jordan J. Devereaux
    4. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
  • Ion selectivity in a semisynthetic K+ channel locked in the conductive conformation

    Science
    1. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
    2. Manuel Leonetti
    3. Tom W. Muir
    4. Roderick MacKinnon
  • Structural and functional consequences of an amide-to-ester substitution in the selectivity filter of a potassium channel

    Journal of the American Chemical Society
    1. Francis I. Valiyaveetil
    2. Matthew Sekedat
    3. Roderick MacKinnon
    4. Tom W. Muir