RESEARCH INTERESTS:
Protein Biophysics In Vitro & In VivoThe goal of the research program in the my laboratory is to understand the relationships between protein structure and the energetics of protein equilibria. Using the formalisms of equilibrium thermodynamics and the tools of molecular biology and biophysics, we bring to bear techniques such as random- and directed-mutagenesis, circular dichroism spectropolarimetry, differential scanning calorimetry, isothermal titration calorimetry, analytical ultracentrifugation, and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to solve biologically important problems. Ongoing projects include the role of protein free-radicals in Parkinson's disease, the energetics of protein interactions in apoptosis, the effect of molecular crowding on protein-complex stability, and the use of patterned library analysis to understand protein architecture.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Winzor DJ, Patel CN, Pielak GJ. Reconsideration of sedimentation equilibrium distributions reflecting the effects of small inert cosolutes on the dimerization of alpha-chymotrypsin. Biophys Chem. 2007 Nov;130(3):89-92. Epub 2007 Pielak GJ. Retraction. Biochemistry. 2007 Jul 10;46(27):8206. Epub 2007 Bryant JE, Lecomte JT, Lee AL, Young GB, Pielak GJ. Cytosol has a small effect on protein backbone dynamics. Biochemistry. 2006 Aug 22;45(33):10085-91 Charlton LM, Pielak GJ. Peeking into living eukaryotic cells with high-resolution NMR. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Aug 8;103(32):11817-8. Epub 2006 McCall SJ, Nassar R, Malouf NN, Saunders AJ, Oakeley AE, Henderson PM, Solaro RJ, Pielak GJ, Alexander KA, Anderson PA. Development and cardiac contractility: cardiac troponin T isoforms and cytosolic calcium in rabbit. Pediatr Res. 2006 Sep;60(3):276-81. Epub 2006
Pielak GJ. Woes of proline: a cautionary kinetic tale. Protein Sci. 2006 Mar;15(3):393-4 McNulty BC, Tripathy A, Young GB, Charlton LM, Orans J, Pielak GJ. Temperature-induced reversible conformational change in the first 100 residues of alpha-synuclein. Protein Sci. 2006 Mar;15(3):602-8. Epub 2006 Barrett DG, Minder CM, Mian MU, Whittington SJ, Cooper WJ, Fuchs KM, Tripathy A, Waters ML, Creamer TP, Pielak GJ. Pressure perturbation calorimetry of helical peptides. Proteins. 2006 May 1;63(2):322-6 |
