Dean C. Crick
Professor, Director of the Mycobacterial Research Laboratories

Phone: 491-3308
Fax: 491-1815
Email: Dean.Crick@colostate.edu
Office: B309A Microbiology Building
Lab: B305 Microbiology Building

Degrees

Ph.D. - University of Western Ontario, 1989.
M.Sc. - University of British Columbia, 1984.
B.Sc. - University of British Columbia, 1982.

Research Interests

My research interests revolve around the metabolism of isoprenoids, one of the most structurally diverse and biologically important families of compounds known in nature. Most recently, I have been interested in characterization of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis enzymes that are involved in the synthesis of isoprenoids (such as prenyl phosphates) themselves, as well as, enzymes that are more peripherally involved in isoprenoid metabolism, including the glycosyltransferases involved in the synthesis of cell wall associated polysaccharides and the enzymes involved in Lipid II biosynthesis. A natural progression of the interest in enzymes has expanded my research into the area of drug development.

An additional area my laboratory is currently exploring is the nature of enzymes that transport (flip) activated prenyl phosphate-linked saccharides across bacterial membranes in pathogenic organisms. We are approaching this problem by designing photoaffinity probes, which mimic the natural substrates of the "flippases". While we are just getting started in this line of research, it seems likely that these enzymes will prove to be a rich source of novel characteristics and may well prove to be targets for new classes of antibiotics.

Selected Publications

Pub Med for Crick DC.