Alexander Angerhofer
Associate Professor of Chemistry

Department of Chemistry
University of Florida

VOICE: (352) 392-2263

EMAIL: alex@chem.ufl.edu

HOMEPAGE: http://www.chem.ufl.edu/angerhof.html

Research Interests

The Angerhofer research group is working on the elucidation of energy and electron transfer mechanisms in natural and artificial photosynthetic systems. These include reaction centers and antenna complexes from photosynthetic bacteria, algae, and plants, as well as completely new structures made by organic chemists. As an example of the intricate structures one encounters in the photosynthetic apparatus, see the figure which depicts the structure of a bacterial antenna complex. It consists of a nonamer of subunits where each subunit is composed of an alpha- and a beta-amino acid chain as well as three bacteriochlorophyll a molecules (shown in yellow and green) and two carotenoid molecules (shown in red).

Recent Publications

A. Angerhofer, "Electron Magnetic Resonance of Carotenoids", in: "Carotenoids in Photosynthesis", Series: "Advances in Photosynthesis", (eds.: G. Britton, A. Young, R. J. Cogdell, and H. A. Frank), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht 1999, in press.

J. A. Irvin, F. Piroux, M. C. Morvant, V. L. Robertshaw, A. Angerhofer, and J. R. Reynolds, "Low Oxidation Potential Conducting Polymers Based on 1,4-Bis[2-(3,4-ethylenedioxy)-thienyl]-2,5-dialkoxybenzenes", Synth. Metals, (1999), in press.

A. Angerhofer, F. Bornhaauser, V. Aust, G. Hartwich, and H. Scheer, "Triplet Energy Transfer in Bacterial Photosynthetic Reaction Centres", Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1365, 404, (1998).

A. Angerhofer, and E. R. Haufler, "Absorption Detected Magnetic Resonance of Bacteriochlorophyll-a and Related Molecules in Low External Magnetic Fields", Spectrochim. Acta A 54, 1157, (1998).

Y. Hsieh, Y. Guan, C. Tu, P. J. Bratt, A. Angerhofer, J. R. Lepock, M. J. Hickey, J. A. Tainer, H. S. Nick, and D. N. Silverman, "Probing the Active Site of Human Manganese Superoxide Dismutase: the Role of Glutamine 143", Biochemistry, 37 , 4731, (1998).

D. Siefermann-Harms, and A. Angerhofer, "Evidence for an O2-Barrier in the Light-Harvesting Chlorophyll-a/b-Protein Complex LHCII", Photosyn. Res., 55, 83, (1998).

P. J. Bratt, M. Rohrer, J. Krzystek, M. C. W. Evans, L.--C. Brunel, and A. Angerhofer, "Submillimeter High--Field EPR Studies of the Primary Donor in Plant Photosystem I P700+", J. Phys. Chem. 101B, 9686 (1997).