Dr. Tyler Stack’s Lab
About Our Research:
Dr. Stack’s research group started in 2021 to focus on discovering new bacterial metabolism. Bacteria are opportunists, capable of digesting various molecules we do not consider food. My students are discovering and characterizing the “accidental” metabolism of drugs and food additives by the human gut microbiome. These chemical modifications lead to changes in the safety and efficacy of these therapeutics.
Undergraduates in Dr. Stack’s research group can expect to learn various techniques spanning biochemistry, organic chemistry, and microbiology. Students use bioinformatic tools to study the hundreds of millions of protein sequences in public databases, produce computational models of drugs binding to enzymes, microbiology to culture gut bacteria in our anaerobic chamber, and enzymology to purify and characterize proteins that perform these modifications.
Undergraduates join the lab as soon as the spring semester of their first year at PC, where they work with an experienced lab member before they get their research project. Students can work in the lab for class credit during the fall and spring semesters and are paid to work for 10 weeks over the summer. Students have been supported through the Robert H. Walsh Student Research Fellowship and the Providence College Summer Undergraduate Research and Creative Grant.
Recent Publications
Providence College Undergraduate Authors are Underlined
de Lorenzo, L., Stack, T. M. M., Fox, K.M., Walstrom, K.M. (2024) Catalytic mechanism and kinetics of malate dehydrogenase. Essays in Biochemistry, EBC20230086. PubMed ID 38721782
Long, A. R., Mortara, E. L., Mendoza, B. M., Fink, E. C., Sacco, F. X., Ciesla, M. J., Stack, T. M. M. (2024) Sequence similarity network analysis of drug- and dye-modifying azoreductase enzymes found in the human gut microbiome. Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, 757, 110025. PubMed ID 38740275
Stack, T. M. M., Gerlt, J. A. Discovery of novel pathways for carbohydrate metabolism. Current Opinion in Chemical Biology. Published online ahead of print. 61:63-70. PubMed ID 33197748.
Stack, T. M. M., Morrison, K. N., Dettmer, T. M., Wille, B., Kim, B., Joyce, R., Jermain, M., Naing, Y. T., Bhatti, K., San Francisco B., Carter, M.S., Gerlt, J. A. Characterization of an L-Ascorbate Catabolic Pathway with Unprecedented Enzymatic Transformations. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 2020 142(4):1657-1661. Pubmed ID 31917558.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1422-784X
