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/

Publications: Click here for Google Scholar Listing

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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