The American Chemical Society, in its Select Virtual issue, featured the research of 17 emerging investigators in bioinorganic chemistry, including UGA associate professor of chemistry Todd Harrop. The feature highlighted the group of early career researchers who have received their doctorate since 2004.
Born and raised in San Francisco, Harrop was a chemistry/biology split major at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, California, where he conducted undergraduate research with Steve Bachofer. After a difficult junior year battling cancer, Harrop became fascinated with bioinorganic chemistry; two of his chemotherapy drugs (cisplatin and bleomycin) contained active metal centers. This interest led him to the University of California-Santa Cruz where he received his doctorate in inorganic chemistry in 2004 with Pradip Mascharak and was an NIH-MBRS graduate research fellow. His formal training ended with an NIH-NRSA postdoctoral fellowship at MIT with one of the fathers of bioinorganic chemistry, Steve Lippard.
Since 2007, Harrop has been at UGA’s Center for Metalloenzyme Studies in the chemistry department. His research group is focused on the synthesis and properties of low molecular weight model complexes of metalloenzyme sites that are responsible for the breakdown/transformation of reactive oxygen (superoxide dismutases) and nitrogen species (nitrite reductases).