header logo image

Menu
  • Home
  • People
    • Faculty
    • Faculty by Area
    • Research Staff
    • Administrators
    • Graduate Students
  • Graduate
    • Overview
    • Programs of Study
    • Student Life
    • Apply
    • Contact Us
    • For Current Students
  • Undergraduate
    • Overview
    • Chemistry Center
    • Declaring a Major or Minor
    • Undergraduate Research
    • For Chemistry Majors
    • Course FAQ
  • Research & Facilities
    • Overview
    • Equipment and Software
    • Health and Safety
  • Alumni
    • Overview
    • FoC Get Involved
    • FoC Alumni News
    • FoC Alumni Awards
    • About Friends of Chemistry
  • News and Events
    • Department News
    • Seminar and Special Events
  • Giving

S. Bruce King

Dr. Bruce King

Professor

Thurman D. Kitchin Professor of Chemistry and Chair

Office: Salem Hall, 
Rm. 113A and Wake Downtown, Rm. 3812
Phone: (336) 758-2979 or (336) 702-1954
Email: kingsb@wfu.edu

Research Website

Education

BS, West Virginia University
MS, West Virginia University
PhD, Cornell University
Post-Doctoral, The Scripps Research Institute

Research Description

Our research program is based on a combination of organic chemistry, biochemistry, and biophysics directed towards understanding the various roles gasotransmitters, nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and carbon monoxide (CO) and small molecules, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2 ), nitroxyl (HNO), nitrite (NO2– ) and nitrate (NO3– ) perform in biological systems. Nitric oxide, nitroxyl and hydrogen sulfide directly participate in the control of blood flow and pressure, neurotransmission, and the immune response and the regulation of their levels represents a therapeutic strategy for disease states characterized by abnormal production of these small molecules. These small molecules, especially NO also have been directly implicated in many areas of signaling with a relationship to cancer development/treatment. Our laboratory examines a number of specific areas of biological/medicinal chemistry in relation to these species:

  1. The chemistry of the reactions of these small molecules with biological targets
    including co-factors
  2. The abilitiy of nitroimidazole-based antibiotics, such as metronidazole and other neglected disease therapeutics, to release nitric oxide/nitroxyl and the role these reactive species play in the activity of these drugs
  3. The overall redox properties of sulfur-containing biomolecules.

With relation to sulfur biochemistry, our laboratory works on designing and synthesizing compounds to measure the redox status of sulfur-containg proteins, especially the formation of protein sulfenic acids and the total synthesis and biological chemistry of non-glutathione redox buffer thiols found in various micro-organisms. Many of these projects are completed in collaboration with other groups in chemistry, physics and the medical school. Students in our group are exposed to organic synthesis, biochemistry, molecular biology, biophysics (especially spectroscopy) and bio-analytical chemistry.

Publications

Holmila, R.J.; Vance, S.A.; King, S.B.; Tsang, A.W.; Singh, R.; Furdui, C.M.; “Silver Nanoparticles Induce Mitochondrial Protein Oxidation in Lung Cells Impacting Cell Cycle and Proliferation,” Antioxidants2019, 8, 552-567.  doi:10.3390/antiox8110552

Li, Z. Forshaw, T.E.; Holmila, R.J. Wu, H.; Poole, L.B.; Furdui, C.M.; King, S.B. “Triphenylphosphonium-Derived Protein Sulfenic Acid Trapping Agents: Synthesis, Reactivity and Effect on Mitochondrial Function,” Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2019, 32, 526-534, https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemrestox.8b00385

Holmila, R.J.; Vance, S.A.; Chen, X.; Wu, H.; Shukla, K.; Bharadwaj, R.S.; Mims, J.; Wary, Z., Marrs, G.; Singh, R.; Molina, A.J.; Poole, L.B.; King, S.B.; Furdui, C.M. “Mitochondria-targeted Probes for Imaging Protein Sulfenation,” Scientific Reports, 2018, 8:6635, 24493-24507.

Donzelli, S.; Goetz, M.; Schmidt, K.; Wolters, M.; Stathopoulou, K.; Diering, S.; Prysyazhna, O.; Polat, V.; Scotcher, J.; Dees, C.; Subramanian, H.; Butt, E.; Kamynia, A.; Schobesberger, S.; King, S.B.; de Wit, C.; Leichert, L.I.; Feil, R.; Eaton, P.; Cuello, F. “Oxidant Sensor in the cGMP-Binding Pocket of PKGIα Regulates Nitroxyl-Mediated Kinase Activity,” Scientific Reports, 2017, 7, 9938-9952.

Chen, X.; Wu, H.; Park, C.M.; Poole, T.H.; Keceli, G.; Devarie-Baez, N.O.; Tsang, A.W.; Lowther, W.T.; Poole, L.B.; King, S.B.; Xian, M.; Furdui, C.M. “Discovery of Heteroaromatic Sulfones as a New Class of Biologically Compatible Thiol-Selective Reagents,” ACS Chemical Biology, 2017, 12, 2201-2208, https://doi.org/10.1021/acschembio.7b00444

Bolden, C.; King, S.B., Kim-Shapiro, D.B. “Reactions between nitrosopersulfide and heme proteins,” Free Radical Biology and Medicine, 2016, 90, 418-425, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2016.09.005

Miao, Z., King, S.B. “Recent advances in the chemical biology of  nitrroxyl (HNO) detection and generation,” Nitric Oxide 2016, 57, 1-14, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.niox.2016.04.006

Miao, Z.; King, S.B. “Comparison of Reductive Ligation Strategies for Nitroxyl and S-Nitrosothiols,” ChemistryOpen, 2016, 5, 110-114, https://doi.org/10.1002/open.201500200

Awards and Accomplishments

MacDonough Family Faculty Fellowship, Wake Forest University
Established Investigator of the American Heart Association
Wake Forest University Award for Excellence in Research
Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar
NIH Post-doctoral Fellow, The Scripps Research Institute
NIH Pre-doctoral Fellow, Cornell University
Swiger Pre-doctoral Fellowship, West Virginia University

Navigation

  • Abdessadek Lachgar
  • Akbar Salam
  • Al Rives
  • Allison Rice
  • Amanda Jones
  • Angela G. King
  • Bradley T. Jones
  • Carthene R. Bazemore-Walker
  • Christa L. Colyer
  • David Wren
  • Dilip K. Kondepudi
  • Elham Ghadiri
  • George L. Donati
  • John Lukesh
  • John Tomlinson
  • Lindsay R. Comstock-Ferguson
  • Mark Welker
  • Patricia C. Dos Santos
  • Paul B. Jones
  • Rebecca Alexander
  • Scott Geyer
  • Troy Stich
  • Ulrich Bierbach
  • Wendu Ding
  • Willie Hinze

Contact Information

Wake Forest University,
Salem Hall, Box 7486,
Winston-Salem NC 27109

Phone 336.758-6139
FAX: 336.758.4656

Site Map
Campus Map

Campus Links

Wake Forest College
Graduate School
WIN
Campus Libraries
Administration
Giving to Chemistry
Wake Alert

Connect With Us

  • Home
  • People
    • Faculty
    • Faculty by Area
    • Research Staff
    • Administrators
    • Graduate Students
  • Graduate
    • Overview
    • Programs of Study
    • Student Life
    • Apply
    • Contact Us
    • For Current Students
  • Undergraduate
    • Overview
    • Chemistry Center
    • Declaring a Major or Minor
    • Undergraduate Research
    • For Chemistry Majors
    • Course FAQ
  • Research & Facilities
    • Overview
    • Equipment and Software
    • Health and Safety
  • Alumni
    • Overview
    • FoC Get Involved
    • FoC Alumni News
    • FoC Alumni Awards
    • About Friends of Chemistry
  • News and Events
    • Department News
    • Seminar and Special Events
  • Giving

© 2019 Wake Forest University All Rights Reserved.