Douglas E. Smith

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/
Tel: 858-736-5340 (cell)

Research Papers:  Click here for list of PDF files

Research topics:
·  Mechanical manipulation and imaging of single DNA molecules
·  Viral DNA packaging in bacteriophages phi29, lambda, and T4
·  Function of ATP-dependent molecular motors
·  Single polymer dynamics (polymer physics, DNA properties, rheology)
·  Chromatin assembly and structure
·  Enzyme mediated DNA looping
·  Restriction endonuclease function
·  Physics of knot formation

Techniques:
·  Optical tweezers force transducer for single DNA molecule manipulation
   (impose and detect piconewton-level forces and nanometer-level displacements)
·  Single DNA molecule imaging by fluorescence microscopy
·  Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Awards:
·  Sloan Foundation Fellow, 2003 (link)
·  Beckman Young Investigator Award, 2003 (link)
·  Searle Scholars Award, 2002 (link)
·  Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in Biomedical Science, 2001 (link)
·  Research Corporation Research Innovation Award, 2001 (link)
·  Graduate Fellowship, NSF Program in Mathematics and Molecular Biology, 1996 (link)
·  Sigma Xi Science Prize, 1993
·  Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, 1993    

Funding:
·  National Institutes of Health (NIH)
·  Burroughs Wellcome Fund
·  Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation
·  Research Corporation
·  Kinship Foundation
·  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
·  American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund

Background:
Ph.D. in Applied Physics, Stanford University, 1999
    Thesis research: Manipulation and imaging of single DNA molecules, Single polymer dynamics
    Advisor: Prof. Steven Chu (link1, link2, link3, link4)

B.A. in Physics, University of Chicago, 1993

Postdoctoral Fellow, Physics/Biophysics, University of California, Berkeley, 1999-2001
    Research: Single-molecule studies of viral DNA packaging
    Advisor: Prof. Carlos Bustamante (link)

Recent presentations at conferences:
·  Gordon Research Conference on Single Molecule Approaches to Biology, Jun. 2006
·  SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference, Symposium on Optical Trapping and Optical
    Micromanipulation, Aug. 2006 ·  Protein Society Meeting, Symposium on Single Molecule Studies, Aug. 2006
    (Symposium organizer and Session chair)
·  Biophysical Society Annual Meeting, Mar. 2007 (Session chair)
·  American Physical Society March Meeting, Symposium on Molecular Motors, Mar. 2007
·  International Biennial Phage/Virus Assembly Conference, May 2007
·  SPIE Optics and Photonics Conference, Symposium on Optical Trapping and Optical
    Micromanipulation, Aug. 2007

Current collaborators (recent coauthors):
·  Profs. Dwight Anderson, Shelley Grimes, and Paul Jardine, 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