Jean Gaffney

Prof. Jean Gaffney's research focuses on designing novel inhibitors for a class of enzymes known as the matrix metalloproteinases.  New research is on discovery of tunable fluorescent proteins from marine organisms.  Her teaching interests include inorganic chemistry and bioinorganic chemistry.  

Selected Publications

• Gruber, D. F., Loew, E. R., Deheyn, D. D, Gaffney, J. P., Smith, W. L., Davis, M. P., Stern, J. H., Akkaynak, D., Pieribone, V. A., and J. S. Sparks. 2016. Biofluorescence in catsharks (Scyliorhinidae): Assessment of elasmobranch fluorescence with relevance to visual ecology. Nature Scientific Reports 2016; 6: 24751
• D. F. Gruber, J.P. Gaffney, S. Mehr, J.S. Sparks, J. Platisa, V.A. Pieribone. Adaptive Evolution of Eel Fluorescent Proteins from Fatty Acid Binding Proteins Produces Bright Fluorescence in the Marine Environment, PLoS ONE 2015; 10(11)
• J.P Gaffney and I. Sagi (Editors). Matrix Metalloproteinase Biology. Wiley Science. 2015 (ISBN: 978-1-118-77232-4)
• J.P. Gaffney, I. Solomonov, E. Zehorai, I. Sagi. Multilevel Regulation of Matrix Metalloproteinases in Tissue Homeostasis Indicates Their Molecular Specificity In-Vivo. Journal of Matrix Biology. 2015; 44, 191-199
• F. Amos, K. Cole, R.L. Meserole, J.P. Gaffney, and A.M. Valentine. Titanium mineralization in ferritin: A room temperature non-photochemical preparation and biophysical characterization. Journal of Biological Inorganic Chemistry 2013; 18(3): 145-152
• J.P. Gaffney and A.M. Valentine. Beyond Bilobal: Transferrin homologs having unusual domain architecture. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta- General Subjects 2012; 1860(3): 212-217
• J.P. Gaffney and A.M. Valentine. The challenges of trafficking hydrolysis prone metals and ascidians as an archetype. Dalton Transactions 2011; 40(22): 5287-5385
• J.P Gaffney and A.M. Valentine. Contrasting synergistic anion effects in vanadium(V) binding to nicatransferrin versus human serum transferrin. Biochemistry 2009; 48(49): 11609-11611
• D.M. Sarno, J.J. Martin, S.M. Hira, C.J Timpson, J.P Gaffney and W.E. Jones. Enhanced conductivity of thin film polyaninline by self-assembled transition metal complexes. Langmuir 2007; 23(2): 879-884