Dr. Khadine Higgins

Areas of Expertise

• Inorganic chemistry, bioinorganic chemistry, spectroscopy, protein characterization 

Education

• B.A. in chemistry, Lawrence University (2004)
• Ph.D. in chemistry, University of Massachusetts Amherst (2012)

What's My Why?

My research is aimed at understanding how bacteria are able to regulate metal ion concentrations as well as distinguish between various first-row transition metals. My work is interdisciplinary and students will have an opportunity to learn and utilize variety of inorganic chemistry, biochemistry as well as molecular biology techniques. The Higgins research group is currently studying a nickel and cobalt responsive metalloregulator from Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Selected Publications

Higgins K., Nickel Metalloregulators and Chaperones. Inorganics, 7 (8), 104 (2019).

Ha, Y., Hu, H., Higgins, K., Maroney, M., Hedman, B., Hodgson, K., Solomon, E., The Electronic Structure of the Metal Active Site Determines the Geometric Structure and Function of the Metalloregulator NikR. Biochemistry, 58, 34, 3585-3591 (2019)

Glauninger, H., Zhang, Y., Higgins, K. A., Jacobs, A. D., Martin, J. E., Fu, Y., Coyne, J., Bruce, K. E., Maroney, M. J., Clemmer, D. E., Capdevila, D. A., Giedroc, D. P., Metal-dependent allosteric activation and inhibition on the same molecular scaffold: the copper sensor CopY from Streptococcus pneumoniae. Chemical Science, 9(1) 105-118 (2018).

Denby, K.J, Iwig, J., Bisson, C, Westwood, J., Rolfe, M. D., Sedelnikova, S. E., Higgins, K. A, Maroney, M. J., Baker, P. J., Chivers, P. T., Green, J., The Mechanism of a formaldehyde-sensing transcriptional regulator. Scientific Reports; 6 (1), 38879 (2016).

Higgins, K. A., Peng, H., Luebke, J. L., Chang, F. J., Giedroc, D. P., Conformational Analysis and Chemical Reactivity of the Multidomain Sulfurtransferase, Staphylococcus aureus CstA. Biochemistry, 54(14), 2385-2398 (2015).