Douglas E. Smith
Professor
Department of Physics
University of California, San Diego
Natural Science Building, Mail Code 0379
9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093
Email: des@physics.ucsd.edu
http://physics.ucsd.edu/~des/
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Research topics:
� Viral DNA packaging in bacteriophages phi29, lambda, and T4
� Function of ATP-dependent molecular motors
� Single polymer dynamics (polymer physics, DNA properties, microrheology)
� Chromatin assembly and structure
� Protein mediated DNA looping
� DNA Unzipping
� Physics of knot formation
Techniques:
� Manipulation of single DNA molecules with Optical Tweezers
� Single DNA molecule imaging by fluorescence microscopy
� Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Background:
Ph.D. Applied Physics, Stanford University, 1999
Thesis research: Manipulation and imaging of single DNA
molecules, Single polymer dynamics
Advisor: Steve Chu
B.A. Physics, University of Chicago, 1993
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1999-2001
Research: Single-molecule studies of viral DNA packaging
Advisor: Carlos Bustamante
Awards:
� Sloan Foundation Fellow, 2003
� Beckman Young Investigator Award, 2003
� Searle Scholars Award, 2002
� Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in
Biomedical Science, 2001
� Research Corporation Research Innovation Award, 2001
� Graduate Fellowship, NSF Program in Mathematics and Molecular Biology,
1996
� Sigma Xi Science Prize, 1993
� Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, 1993
Recent collaborators:
�� Prof. Michael Feiss,
Dept. of Microbiology and Genetics, University of Iowa
� Profs. Shelley Grimes, Paul Jardine, and
Dwight Anderson, Dept. of Diagnostic & Biological Sci., Univ. of
Minnesota
� Prof. Carlos Catalano, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry,
University of Washington
� Prof. Venigalla Rao,
Department of Biology, Catholic University of America
� Prof. James Kadonaga, Division of Biology,
University of California, San Diego
� Prof. Gaurav Arya, Dept. of Nanoengineering,
University of California, San Diego
updated 7/2015