Expertise

Dr. Hondal received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Ohio State University in 1997. He then spent one year in the laboratory of Raymond Burk at Vanderbilt University studying the chemistry of selenomethionine and the structure of selenoprotein P. He continued his postdoctoral study under the direction of Ronald Raines at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a NIH Postdoctoral Fellow. His work there focused on state of the art protein engineering techniques, including native chemical ligation and expressed protein ligation. His postdoctoral work at UW-Madison focused on methods for inserting non-natural amino acids into proteins as a means of addressing important structure-function questions in enzymology.

Awards and Honors

The Paul D. Boyer Memorial Award for Post-Doctoral Fellows  2001

Best Publication Award, Journal of Peptide Science The prize is awarded by the Editorial Board of the Journal of Peptide Science to the communicating author for a paper published in the 2007-2009 time period in the Journal of Peptide Science. 2009

Publications

1) Jenny KA, Mose G, Haupt DJ, & Hondal RJ. (2022) Oxidized forms of ergothioneine are substrates for mammalian thioredoxin reductase. Antioxidants 11, 185. https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox11020185

2) Jenny KA, Ruggles EL, Liptak MD, Masterson DS & Hondal RJ. (2021) Ergothioneine in a peptide: Substitution of histidine with 2-thiohistidine in bioactive peptides. J. Pept. Sci. e3339. https://doi.org/10.1002/psc.3339

3) Ste.Marie E, Wehrle RJ, Haupt DJ, Wood NB, van der Vliet A, Previs MJ, Masterson DS & Hondal RJ. (2020) Can selenoenzymes resist electrophilic modification? Evidence from thioredoxin reductase and a mutant containing alpha-methylselenocysteine. Biochemistry 59, 3300-3315. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.0c00608

4) Ste.Marie E, & Hondal RJ. (2020) 2,2´-Dipyridyl diselenide: A chemoselective tool for cysteine deprotection and disulfide bond formation. J. Pept. Sci. 26, e3236. https://doi.org/10.1002/psc.3236

5) Barber DR, & Hondal RJ. (2019) Gain of function conferred by selenocysteine: Catalytic enhancement of one-electron transfer reactions by thioredoxin reductase. Protein Sci. 28, 79-89. https://doi.org/10.1002/pro.3480

6) Ste.Marie E, & Hondal RJ. (2018) Reduction of cysteine-S-protecting groups by triisopropylsilane. J. Pept. Sci. 24, e3130. https://doi.org/10.1002/psc.3130

7) O’Keefe JP, Dustin CM, Barber DR, Snider GW, & Hondal RJ. (2018) A “seleno-effect” differentiates the roles of redox active cysteine residues in Plasmodium falciparum thioredoxin reductase. Biochemistry 57, 1767-1778. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.8b00004

8) Payne NC, Geissler A, Button A, Sasuclark AR, Schroll AL, Ruggles EL, Gladyshev VN & Hondal RJ. (2017) Comparison of the redox chemistry of sulfur and selenium-containing analogs of uracil. Free Radic. Biol. Med. 104, 249-261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2017.01.028

9) Reich HJ & Hondal RJ. (2016) Why Nature chose selenium. ACS Chem. Biol. 11, 821-841.

10) Lothrop AP, Snider GW, Ruggles EL, Patel AS, Lees WJ, & Hondal RJ. (2014) Selenium as an electron acceptor during the catalytic mechanism of thioredoxin reductase, Biochemistry 53, 654-663. https://doi.org/10.1021/bi400658g  

11) Lothrop AP, Snider GW, Flemer S. Jr., Ruggles EL, Davidson RS, Lamb A, & Hondal RJ. (2014) Compensating for the absence of selenocysteine in high M_r thioredoxin reductases: The electrophilic activation hypothesis, Biochemistry 53, 664-674. https://doi.org/10.1021/bi4007258

12) Snider GW, Ruggles EL, Khan N, & Hondal RJ. (2013) Selenocysteine confers resistance to inactivation by oxidation in thioredoxin reductase: Comparison of selenium and sulfur enzymes. Biochemistry 52, 5472-5481. https://doi.org/10.1021/bi400462j

13) Ruggles EL, Flemer SJ, & Hondal RJ. (2008) A viable synthesis of N-methyl cysteine. Biopolymers 90, 61-68. https://doi.org/10.1002/bip.20889

14) Harris KM, Flemer S & Hondal RJ. (2007) Studies on deprotection of cysteine and selenocysteine side chain protecting groups.  J. Pept. Sci 13, 81-93. https://doi.org/10.1002/psc.795

15) Eckenroth BE, Harris K, Turanov AA, Gladyshev VN, Raines RT, & Hondal, RJ. (2006) Semisynthesis and characterization of mammalian thioredoxin reductase.  Biochemistry 45, 5158-5170. https://doi.org/10.1021/bi0517887