Emil Pai

Dr. Emil F. Pai is currently a Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto's Departments of Biochemistry and Medical Biophysics. He is also a Scientist Emeritus at the University Health Network's Campbell Family Institute for Cancer Research. He is interested in the use of crystallographic techniques to investigate the structural basis of enzyme catalysis and the underlying molecular dynamics.

He moved to the Department of Biophysics at the Max-Planck-Institute for Medical Research to receive training in macromolecular crystallography and biochemistry after completing his undergraduate studies in Chemistry at Heidelberg University. He determined the first crystal structure of the flavoenzyme glutathione reductase and located the substrate binding sites of adenylate kinase. He continued working at the MPI after receiving his doctorate, first as a postdoc and then as a group leader. Heme models of cytochrome P-450 oxidations were the focus of his work in T.C. Bruice's lab at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 1982 to 1983. Back at the MPI, he helped to determine the three-dimensional fold of the first oncoprotein, H-ras p21, and to the crystal structure of the muscle protein actin. Dr. Pai came to the Biochemistry Department as the NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Protein Crystallography. He has over 200 publications to his name.

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