Patrick Rabe

Patrick Rabe is a researcher at the University of Oxford, affiliated with the Department of Chemistry. His work focuses on synthetic organic chemistry, biochemistry, and spectroscopy, particularly in the study of O2-dependent reactions related to bioluminescence, such as those involving luciferases. His research explores the mechanisms of catalytic processes and the development of tools for spectroscopic methods and time-resolved crystallography. Rabe's work is interdisciplinary, involving collaboration with Diamond Light Source. He joined the University of Oxford in 2021 and was awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Award in 2023 to establish his independent research group. He also contributes to teaching through the SBMCDT biopolymers course.

Patrick Rabe is a Group Leader at the University of Oxford, specializing in mechanistic biosynthetic studies, time-resolved crystallography, and method development. His research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms of terpene cyclases, including class I terpene cyclases and bacterial diterpene cyclases such as spiroviolene synthase and tsukubadiene synthase. He investigates the induced-fit mechanism and conformational changes in these enzymes, using techniques like time-resolved crystallography and spectroscopy. His work also explores terpene synthases in eukaryotes beyond plants and fungi, including social amoebae, and their role in natural product biosynthesis. Additionally, he develops methods for rapid chemical characterization of bacterial terpene cyclases and studies the chemical biology of dimethylsulfoniopropionate.