Department of Applied Physics

Description

Biophysics

The overarching goal of the Herschlag Lab is to understand the fundamental behavior of RNA and proteins and, in turn, how these behaviors determine and impact biological catalysis and biology. The lab takes an interdisciplinary approach, spanning and integrating physics, chemistry and biology, and a wide range of techniques are employed. We study the underlying mechanisms responsible for the enormous catalytic power and exquisite specificity of enzymes, both protein and RNA, the folding landscape of structured RNA molecules, and the genomic and cellular properties of RNA molecules and their regulation and coordination. I direct “Biological Macromolecules” (Structural Biology 241), which is a uniquely organized course aimed at conveying the essential principles of the properties and fundamental features of biological macromolecules.

Courses Taught

• Chemistry of Biological Processes
• Biological Macromolecules

Selected Publications

• A Single Molecule Study of RNA Catalysis and Folding
• Testing Electrostatic Complementarity in Enzyme Catalysis: Hydrogen Bonding in the Ketosteroid Isomerase Oxyanion Hole
• Direct Measurement of the Full, Sequence-dependent Folding Landscape of a Nucleic Acid
• Diverse RNA-Binding Proteins Interact with Functionally Related Sets of RNAs, Suggesting an Extensive Regulatory System
• Testing Geometrical Discrimination within an Enzyme Active Site: Constrained Hydrogen Bonding in the Ketosteroid Isomerase Oxyanion Hole
• Direct Measurement of Tertiary Contact Cooperativity in RNA Folding
• Critical Assessment of Nucleic Acid Electrostatics via Experimental and Computational Investigation of an Unfolded State Ensemble
• Comparative Enzymology in the Alkaline Phosphatase Superfamily to Determine the Catalytic Role of an Active Site Metal Ion
• Origins of Catalysis by Computationally Designed Retroaldolase Enzymes
• Multiple Native States of an RNA Enzyme Reveal Persistent Ruggedness of an RNA Folding Landscape