Welcome to the Mehl Research Group
In the early years the Mehl lab focused on optimizing the tools of Genetic Code Expansion for robustly expressing proteins with site-specifically incorporated non-canonical amino acids that have many applications as spectroscopic probes, protein crosslinkers, post-translational modifications and bioorthogonal ligations. This powerful technology has been developed by many labs in the world for incorporation of hundreds of amino acids into many different organisms and can be overwhelming to non-experts. To provide greater access to this technology and foster its diverse use we have started the worlds first Unnatural Protein Facility at Oregon State University.
In recent years the Mehl lab is combining the advances of Genetic Code Expansion with materials and oxidative stress. The ability to site-specifically alter any protein with polymers, chemically reactive groups and oxidative damage provides our lab unique control over construction of protein in or on materials and study of oxidative stress diseases.