Fluorine Metabolism, Transport and Enzymatic Chemistry

Randy B. Stockbridge is an Associate Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Michigan. She also holds an appointment in the Program in Biophysics. She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2010 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where she conducted mechanistic enzymology research in the laboratory of Dr. Richard Wolfenden. She carried out her postdoctoral studies in the lab of Dr. Christopher Miller at Brandeis University, where she first discovered and characterized new families of microbial fluoride export proteins. Her research lab at the University of Michigan applies structural biology, biochemistry, and biophysical approaches to understand microbial membrane physiologies, including fluoride resistance, antiseptic resistance, and metabolite transport. She serves on the Board of Reviewing Editors for the journal eLife and the editorial board for the Journal of General Physiology. She is also active in undergraduate education at the University of Michigan. She teaches Introductory Biochemistry to approximately 450 students each year, along with specialty courses on macromolecular structure. She has been awarded the Paul F. Cranefield Award from the Society of General Physiologists, and the Margaret Oakley Dayhoff Award from the Biophysical Society, an NSF CAREER award, and research awards from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

1. Determination of fluoride sensitivity and resistance in oral biofilm models
2. NMR methods to detect fluoride binding and transport by membrane proteins
3. Biotransformation of fluorinated drugs and xenobiotics by the model fungus Cunninghamella elegans
4. Measurement of fluoride efflux from lipid vesicles and cells
5. Defluorination of PFAS by Acidimicrobium sp. A6 and Potential Applications for Remediation
6. Computational approaches to investigate F- binding, selectivity and transport in F- exporters
7. Defluorination as a key trait to gauge the biodegradability of fluorinated pollutants: challenges and opportunities
8. Patch-Clamp Electrophysiology of Fluoride Channels in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
9. Synthesis of fluorophenylalanine-encoded proteins in HEK cells