BIOPHYSICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
6
APRIL
2014
Know the Editors
Joshua Wand
University of Pennsylvania
Editor of Proteins and Nucleic Acids Section
Q:
What is your area of research?
I am broadly interested in how the biophysi-
cal properties of proteins are manifested in their
biological function. We are particularly engaged
in trying to reveal the nature of internal protein
motion and how this influences functions rang-
ing from molecular recognition to allostery and
catalysis. Since the determination of the first pro-
tein structures over half a century ago, the view of
protein thermodynamics and function has been
largely driven by the exquisite detail of the struc-
tural models provided by crystallography. This
is a very enthalpic perspective. For the past two
decades we have been working toward using mea-
sures of fast internal motion measured by NMR
relaxation techniques as a quantitative proxy for
conformational entropy. This has resulted in the
construction of an “entropy meter” that has al-
lowed us to show that changes in conformational
entropy resulting from a change in functional
state can be very large.
A second emphasis of research rests on the ad-
vantageous properties of proteins encapsulated in
reverse micelles. Our original idea was to use solu-
tions of encapsulated proteins prepared in very
low viscosity solvents as a way to overcome the
slow tumbling problem presented by large pro-
teins to solution NMR. It turns out that a variety
of features of the reverse micelle, derived mainly
from the confined space of the water core, open
other applications. These include structural stud-
ies of unstable proteins through forced folding,
characterization of protein hydration dynamics,
structural characterization of integral and mem-
brane anchored proteins among many
other applications.
New & Notables
Each month a few papers are highlighted in
BJ
with a New & Notable, which are commentaries
that highlight a point, question, or controversy
raised in the paper they discuss. Visit
-
physj.org to read these articles from a recent issue
of
BJ
.
Taking Care of Bystander FRET in a Crowded Cell
Membrane Environment
, Amitabha Chattopad-
hyay and Andrew Clayton, which highlights the
paper:
The FRET Signatures of Non-Interacting Pro-
teins in Membranes: Simulations and Experiments
,
Kalina Hristova, Christopher King , Sarvenaz
Sarabipour , Patrick Byrne, and Daniel Leahy
Amyloid Fibrils: the Eighth Wonder of the World
in Protein Folding and Aggregation
, Igor Lednev,
which highlights the paper:
Mutational Analysis
of Pre-Amyloid Intermediates: The Role of His-Tyr
Interactions in Islet Amyloid Formation
, Daniel
Raleigh, Ling-Hsien Tu , Arnaldo Serrano , and
Martin Zanni
Does Cell Mechanics in Adipogenesis Offer New
Keys for the Prevention and Management of Obe-
sity?
Thomas Franz, highlighting the paper:
Does
Cell Mechanics in Adipogenesis Offer New Keys for
the Prevention and Management of Obesity?
Amit
Gefen, Naama Shoham , Pinhas Girshovitz , Rona
Katzengold, Natan Shaked , and Dafna Benayahu
First Demonstration of Bistability in CaMKII, a
Memory Related Kinase
, Paul Michalski, which
highlights the paper:
In Vitro Reconstitution of a CaMKII Memory
Switch by an NMDA Receptor-Derived Peptide
,
Hidetoshi Urakubo, Miharu Sato, Shin Ishii, and
Shinya Kuroda
Josh Wand
Biophysical Journal Corner
