· Ronald Edward Viola was born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, and received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Fordham University in the Bronx. After a two-year hiatus in Germany, courtesy of the U.S. Army, he completed his graduate training at Penn State University, earning an M.S. in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry. He was introduced to the wonderful world of enzymes as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Mo Cleland at the University of Wisconsin. Following an initial faculty appointment at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville, he moved to the University of Akron in 1984. He joined the faculty at the University of Toledo in 2000 as a Professor of Chemistry.

· B.S., Chemistry, Fordham University, Bronx, NY

· M.S., Chemistry; Ph.D., Biochemistry, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA

· NIH postdoctoral fellow, Enzymology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI

· Director of the Viola Research Group

*Note: These are Dr. Viola's recent publications

Site Specific Modulation Publications

· D. M. Colleluori, R. S. Reczknwski, F. A. Emig, E. Cama, J. D. Cox, L. R. Scolnick, K. Compher, K. Jude, S. Han, R. E. Viola, D. W. Christianson, and D. E. Ash, Probing the Role of the Hyper-Reactive Histidine Residue of Arginase, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 444, 15-26 (2005).

· I. Elder, S.Han, C. K. Tu, H. Steele, P. J. Laipis, R. E. Viola, and D. N. Silverman, Activation of Carbonic Anhydrase II by Active-Site Incorporation of Histidine Analogs, Arch. Biochem. Biophys., 421, 283-289 (2004)

· K. M. Jude, S. K. Wright, C. K. Tu, D. N. Silverman, R. E. Viola, and D. W. Christianson, Crystal Structure of F65A/Y131C-methylimidazole Carbonic Anhydrase V Reveals Architectural Features of an Engineered Proton Shuttle, Biochemistry 41, 2485-2491 (2002).

· S. K. Wright and R. E. Viola, Alteration of the Specificity of Malate Dehydrogenase by Chemical Modulation of an Active Site Arginine, J. Biol. Chem. 276, 31151-31155 (2001).

· J. K. Bell, H. Yennawar, S. K. Wright, R. E. Viola, and L. J. Banaszak, Creating a Malate Dehydrogenase with a Modified Active Site, J. Biol. Chem. 276, 31156-31162 (2001).

· S. K. Wright, M. M. Kish, and R. E. Viola, From Malate Dehydrogenase to Phenyllactate Dehydrogenase: Incorporation of Unnatural Amino Acids to Generate an Improved Enzyme-Catalyzed Activity, J. Biol. Chem. 275, 31689-31694 (2000).

Aspartate Pathway Publications

· D. M. Coe and R. E. Viola, Assessing the Roles of Catalytic Functional Groups in the Mechanism of Homoserine Succinyltransferase, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 461, 211-218 (2007).

· C. R. Faehnle, X. Liu, A. Pavlovsky, and R. E. Viola, The Initial Step in the Archael Aspartate Biosynthetic Pathway Catalyzed by a Monofunctional Aspartokinase, Acta Cryst. F62, 962-966 (2006).

· S. Han, R. A. Moore, and R. E. Viola, A Facile Synthesis of a Difluoromethylene Analog of β-aspartylphosphate as an Inhibitor of Aspartate-ß-semialdehyde dehydrogenase, SynLett. 845-846 (2003).

· R. A. Moore, W. A. Bocik, and R. E. Viola, Expression and Purification of L-Aspartate-β-semialdehyde dehydrogenase from Infectious Microorganisms, Prot. Express. Purif. 25, 189-194 (2002).

· C. L. James and R. E. Viola, Production and Characterization of Bifunctional Enzymes. Domain Swapping to Produce New Bifunctional Enzymes in the Aspartate Pathway, Biochemistry 41, 3720-3725 (2002).

· C. L. James and R. E. Viola, Production and Characterization of Bifunctional Enzymes. Substrate Channeling in the Aspartate Pathway, Biochemistry 41, 3726-3731 (2002).

· J. Blanco and R. E. Viola, Purification, crystallization and preliminary X-ray analysis of aspartokinase III from Escherichia coli, Acta Cryst. D58, 352-354 (2002).

· R. E. Viola, The Central Enzymes of the Aspartate Pathway of Amino Acid Biosynthesis, Acc. Chem. Res. 34, 339-349 (2001).

ASA Dehydrogenase Structural Publications

· R. E. Viola, X. Liu, J. F. Ohren, and C. R. Faehnle, Structure of a redundant enzyme. The second isoform of Aspartate β-semialdehyde dehydrogenase from Vibrio cholerae, Acta. Cryst. D64, 321-330 (2008).

· C. R. Faehnle, J. Le Coq, X. Liu, and R. E. Viola, Structural Complexes of the Anti-bacterial Target Aspartate-β-semialdehyde Dehydrogenase from Streptococcus pneumoniae, J. Biol. Chem. 281, 31031-31040 (2006).

· C. R. Faehnle, J. F. Ohren, and R. E. Viola, A New Branch in the Family. Structure of Aspartate β-semialdehyde Dehydrogenase from Methanococcus jannaschii, J. Molec. Biol. 353, 1055-1068 (2005).

· C. R. Faehnle, J. Blanco, and R. E. Viola, Structural Basis for Discrimination Between Oxyanion Substrates or Inhibitors in Aspartate-β-semialdehyde Dehydrogenase, Acta. Cryst. D60, 2320-2324 (2004).

· J. Blanco, R. A. Moore, C. R. Faehnle, and R. E. Viola, Critical Catalytic Functional Groups in the Mechanism of Aspartate-β-semialdehyde Dehydrogenase, Acta. Cryst. D60, 1808-1815 (2004).

· J. Blanco, R. A. Moore, C. R. Faehnle, D. M. Coe, and R. E. Viola, The Role of Substrate Binding Groups in the Mechanism of Aspartate-β-semialdehyde Dehydrogenase, Acta Cryst. D60, 1388-1395 (2004).

· J. Blanco, R. A. Moore, and R. E. Viola, Capture of an Intermediate in the Catalytic Cycle of L-Aspartate-β-semialdehyde Dehydrogenase, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 12613-12617 (2003).

· J. Blanco, R. A. Moore, V. Kabaleeswaram, and R. E. Viola, A structural basis for the Mechanism of Aspartate-b-semialdehyde Dehydrogenase from Vibrio cholerae, Protein Sci. 12, 27-33 (2003).

· A. Hadfield, C. Shammes, G. Kryger, D. Ringe, G. Petsko, J. Ouyang, and R. E. Viola, Active site analysis of the potential anti-microbial target Aspartate semialdehyde dehydrogenase, Biochemistry 40, 14475-14483 (2001).

Aspartoacylase Publications

· J. Le Coq, A. Pavlovsky, R. Malik, R. Sanishvili, C. Xu, and R. E. Viola, Examination of the Mechanism of Human Brain Aspartoacylase through the Binding of an Intermediate Analog, Biochemistry 47, 3484-3492 (2008).

· R. E. Viola, The Impact of Structural Biology on Neurobiology, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 399-400 (2007).

· J. Le Coq, H.-J. An, C. Lebrilla, and R. E. Viola, Characterization of Aspartoacylase: the Brain Enzyme Responsible for Canavan Disease, Biochemistry 45, 5878-5884 (2006).

· C. N. Madhavarao, J. R. Moffett, R. A. Moore, R.E. Viola, M. A. A. Namboodiri, and D. M. Jacobowitz, Immunohistochemical Localization of Aspartoacylase in the Rat Central Nervous System, J. Compar. Neurol. 472, 318-329 (2004).

· R. A. Moore, J. Le Coq, C. R. Faehnle, and R. E. Viola, Purification and Preliminary Characterization of Brain Aspartoacylase, Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 413, 1-8 (2003).

Miscellaneous Publications

· R. E. Viola, L. Yerman, J. M. Fowler, C. G. Arvidson and R. R. Brubaker, A Missense Mutation Causes Aspartase deficiency in Yersinia pestis, Microbiology 154, 000-000 (2008).

· X. Liu, L. Hanson, P. Langan, and R. E. Viola, The Effect of Deuteration on Protein Structure. A High Resolution Comparison of Hydrogenous and Perdeuterated Haloalkane Dehalogenase, Acta Cryst D63, 1000-1008 (2007).

· J. F. Ohren, M. L. Kundracik, C. L. Borders, P. Edmiston, and R. E. Viola, Subunit Asymmetry and Communication in Muscle Creatine Kinase, Acta Cryst. D63, 381-389 (2007).

· Q. Liu, J. R. Kirchhoff, C. R. Faehnle, R. E. Viola, and R. A. Hudson, A Rapid Method for the Purification of Methanol Dehydrogenase from Methylobacterium extorquens, Prot. Express. Purif. 46, 316-320 (2006).

· E. Cama, S. Pethe, J.-L. Boucher, S. Han, F. A. Emig, D. E. Ash, R. E. Viola, D. Mansuy, and D. W. Christianson, Inhibitor Coordination Interactions in the Binuclear Manganese Cluster of Arginase, Biochemistry 43, 8987-8999 (2004).

· S. Han, R. A. Moore, and R. E. Viola, Synthesis and Evaluation of Alternative Substrates for Arginase, Bioorg. Chem. 30, 81-94 (2002).

· S. Han and R. E. Viola, A Spectrophotometric Assay of Arginase, Anal. Biochem. 295, 117-119 (2001).

· R. E. Viola, “L-Aspartase: New Tricks from an Old Enzyme”, in Adv. Enzymol., Mechanism of Enzyme Action, Part B, (D. Purich, ed.), 2000, vol. 74B, ch. 7, pp. 295-341, Academic Press, San Diego, CA.