Brandon Greene Headshot

Assistant Professor

Joint Appt: BMSE

greene@chem.ucsb.edu

Chem 1142C

805-893-2229

About

Specialization: 

Biomedical Sciences; Biologically Inspired Chemistry & Physics; Energy, Catalysis & Green Chemistry; Structural Chemistry, Spectroscopy & Advanced Analysis; Inorganic & Organometallic; Physical Chemistry; Biochemistry & Biophysics.

Education: 

2019 Postdoc Harvard University and MIT

2016 Ph.D. Emory University

2009 B.S. Washington State University

Research: 

Greene Lab Website

Research Objective:

Organisms in all branches of the tree of life harness exotic cofactors, macromolecular dynamics, and elegant reaction design to enable chemical transformations that occur far from equilibrium. Research in the Greene lab seeks to elucidate how biomolecular non-equilibrium reaction control is achieved. We are specifically interested in oxidation/reduction (redox) reactions that occur at potentials outside the solvent “redox window” of water that are relevant to bioenergy, biogeochemistry, and human health. Discoveries in these areas are enabled by a dynamic team of investigators of diverse expertise and a synergistic approach involving traditional and cutting-edge methods in protein engineering, molecular biology, spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and biomolecular structural analysis.

Publications: 

Cáceres, J. C., Whitman, N. I., Hall, L. Z., Parast, A. C., Rush, K. W., and Greene, B. L. Radical Transfer Regulation by Colinear Proton-coupled Electron Transfer in Pyruvate Formate Lyase. (in preparation).

Bailey, C. A., Broening, E. S., and Greene, B. L. Phosphite Production by Streptomyces viridochromogenes. bioRxiv, 2025, DOI: 10.1101/2025.02.23.639758 (in review). 

Jones, B. J., Elhajj, S., Haynes, B., O’Connor, I., Gozem, S., and Greene, B. L.* Measurement and Control of Crossed Potentials in a Flavoprotein. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2026, 148, 5057−5073.

Bailey, C. A., Gwyther, P., Čaušević, S., Greene, B. L., and van der Meer, J. R. Phosphite as an engineered niche for Pseudomonas veronii in a synthetic soil bacterial community. mSystems 2025, e00061-25.

Nguy, A. K. L., Ireland, K. A., Kayrouz, C. M., Cáceres, J. C., Greene, B. L., Davis, K. M., and Seyedsayamdost, M. R. Non-Canonical Cytochrome P450 Enzymes in Nature. bioRxiv, 2024, DOI: 10.1101/2024.12.22.630014. (in revision, Nat. Chem. Biol.)

Cáceres, J. C., Michellys, N. G., and Greene, B. L.* Nitric Oxide Inhibition of Glycyl Radical Enzymes and Their Activases. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2025, 147, 11777‒11788.

Jones, B. J. and Greene, B. L.* Singlet oxygen-mediated photochemical cross-linking of an engineered fluorescent flavoprotein iLOV. J. Biol. Chem. 2024, 300, 107845.

Cáceres, J. C., Dolmatch, A., and Greene, B. L.* The Mechanism of Inhibition of Pyruvate Formate Lyase by Methacrylate. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145, 22504−22515.

Bailey, C. A. and Greene, B. L.* A Fluorometric Assay for High-throughput Phosphite Quantitation in Biological and Environmental Matrices. Analyst 2023, 148, 3650−3658.

Cáceres, J. C., Bailey, C. A., Yokoyama, K., and Greene, B. L.* Selenocysteine substitution in thiyl radical enzymes. Method. Enzymol. 2022, 662, 119−140.