Dr. Michele Davis McGibony earned a BS in chemistry from Georgia Southern University in 1993 and completed a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Alabama in 1997, where her research focused on adult-onset diabetes, glucose metabolism, and the metalloprotein chromadulin. She joined the Chemistry Department at Georgia Southern in 2000 as an assistant professor of biochemistry. Dr. McGibony maintains an active undergraduate research group, and her research students regularly present their work at local, regional, and national scientific meetings. Current research projects in her laboratory include investigations of the iron chelation ability of the marine metabolite adenochrome and of the biological activity of synthetically produced derivatives of dragmacidins. Dr. McGibony is also the advisor to the Student Affiliates of the American Chemical Society of Georgia Southern University, who have earned Outstanding Chapter Awards for the past two years. In her free time, Dr. McGibony enjoys spending time with her husband, reading, water-skiing, wakeboarding, and playing the piano.

Research Interests: My research is in the area of bioinorganic chemistry which investigates the role of metals in biological processes and their use in medical treatments. Of primary interest is the isolation and preparation of novel iron-chelation therapy drugs. This class of drugs is used to reduce the amount of “free iron” in the bloodstream which can occur from medical treatments for anemia, genetics, and certain diets. Free iron can generate oxygen radicals that can lead to heart disease, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. My research students have isolated the novel marine metabolite adenochrome from the branchial hearts of an octopus and are attempting to characterize the material utilizing several spectroscopic techniques and determine its potential for chelating iron.

A second bioinorganic research project focuses on the protein chromadulin. It has recently been shown that the oligopeptide chromadulin (or also known as low-molecular-weight chromium-binding substance, LMWCr) binds to insulin receptor in response to insulin. This interaction results in the signal of insulin to be increased, which is a must for people suffering from adult-onset diabetes (90% of all diabetes cases in the United States). This is a condition where body tissues become insensitive to insulin. Chromadulin has been isolated from dog’s liver, beef liver, and shrimp. My research team will attempt to isolate chromadulin from an octopus liver via ultrafiltration, ion-exchange chromatography, and electrophoresis. The isolated product will be characterized on the basis of structure and function and compared the other known chromodulins.

Another interest of mine is a class of bis(indole) alkaloids isolated from marine sponges called dragmacidins. These natural products are quite interesting due to their wide range of biological activities; they are inhibitors of protein phosphatases (PP1 and PP2) and possess anti-viral and anti-cancer activities. My research students will attempt to isolated these types of compounds from local marine sponges and determine their structures via 1H and 13C NMR, mass spectrometry, and infrared spectrometry. The newly isolated materials will be tested for biological and pharmacological activity along with recently synthesized dragmacidins derivatives prepared by Dr. Christine Whitlock’s research team.