Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 1987
My area of research is theoretical biophysics and chemical physics, and my major interest is in the theory of chemical reactions in condensed matter. Our long range goal is the rational design of functional proteins. Recently, part of my group has focused on electron transfer reactions. We want to understand how effects such as electron tunneling, quantum dissipation and coherence, adiabaticity and non-adiabaticity of reaction rates, and energy redistribution may control chemical reactions. Recently, much of our work on this topic was centered on theoretical predictions of tunneling pathways in proteins. Our model, Pathways, was successfully used to design several new electron transfer proteins and to explain available experimental data.
As our knowledge of how protein structural details control reaction rates improves, our ability to design new proteins to catalyze a chosen reaction increases. We will soon face the question of what particular amino acid sequence can generate a desired three-dimensional protein structure. For this reason, part of my group is involved in the protein folding problem, i.e., given the sequence of amino acids in a protein, can we predict its three-dimensional structure? Working with simple protein-like models, our ultimate goal is to determine the key kinetic and thermodynacal features that define what it is to be "protein-like" and what factors are important in obtaining these features. These ideas may aid in the design of protein-like molecules.
Selected Publications:
Folding Kinetics of Protein Like Heteropolymers. With N.D. Socci. J. Chem. Phys., in press.
Electron Transfer in Proteins: A Novel Approach for the Description of Donor-Acceptor Coupling. With S.S. Skourtis, and J.J. Regan. J. Phys. Chem. 98, 3379 (1994).
Energy Landscapes, Glass Transitions, and Chemical Reaction Dynamics in Biomolecular or Solvent Environment. With P.G. Wolynes. J. Chem. Phys. 98, 2218 (1993).
Electron Tunneling Pathways in Proteins, With D.N. Beratan, et al. Perspective Article in Science 258, 1740 (Dec. 11, 1992).
Protein Folding Funnels: Kinetic Pathways through Compact Conformation Space. With P. Leopold et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89, 8721 (1992).
Pathway Analysis of Protein Electron Transfer Reactions. J. N. Onuchic et al. Ann. Rev. Biophys. Biom. Struc. 21, 349 (1992).
Protein Electron Transfer Rates Set by the Bridging Secondary and Tertiary Structure. With D. N. Beratan et al. Science 252, 1285 (1991).