January 2018

Dee, Liliana, Mary Rose and Tom published an article on the cool utilities of 7-cyanoindole as a fluorescent reporter. Check out the science here: DOI:10.1039/C7CP07160D

December 2017

Congratulations Mary Rose, Bei, Dee and Dr. Chen for their JACS article on reporting the existence of alpha sheets. Check out the cool stuff here: DOI:10.1021/jacs.7b09262

July 2017

Mary Rose, Debopreeti and Tom Troxler published a new article on solvent dependent fluorescence behavior of cyanoindoles in Chem. Phys. Lett. Read about it here. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2017.07.038

Congratulations to Ismail for receiving the 2017 Dutton Award from BMB department for best paper published as a first author. Way to go Ismail!

June 2017

Research by Jeff, Rachel, Dr. Bei, Dr. Chen and Dr. Zhang got published in PCCP. Have a look: DOI:10.1039/C7CP02442H

Research by Mary Rose, Ismail and Chun Wei gets highlighted in PennNews! Check it out here. PennNews

May 2017

A paper by Mary Rose Hilaire, Ismail Ahmed and Chun Wei Lin in collaboration with William DeGrado's Lab on "Blue fluorescent amino acid for biological spectroscopy and microscopy" was published in PNAS. DOI:10.1073/pnas.1705586114

April 2017

Congratulations to Rachel Abaskharon who successfully defended her thesis. Our best wishes, Dr. Rachel!

Mary Rose Hilaire successfully defended her thesis. Congrats Dr. Mary Rose!

Jeff Rodgers contributed to an article entitled, "A 31-residue peptide induces aggregation of tau's microtubule-binding region in cells" published in Nature Chemistry, in collaboration with Gerald Stubbs, Stanley B. Prusiner & William F. DeGrado. DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2754

March 2017

Rachel, Dr. Wenkai and Dr. Chen in collaboration with Amos Smith Lab published an article on "Isotope-labeled aspartate sidechain as a non-perturbing infrared probe: Application to investigate the dynamics of a carboxylate buried inside a protein." DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2017.03.064

Chun-Wei Lin in collaboration with William DeGrado's Labo at University of California, SanFrancisco published a communication on "Activation pH and Gating Dynamics of Influenza A M2 Proton Channel Revealed by Single-Molecule Spectroscopy" in Angewandte Chemie DOI: 10.1002/anie.201701874

January 2017

Chun-Wei Lin published a new article on "Microscopic nucleation and propagation rates of an alanine-based α-helix " in Phys. Chem. Chem.Phys. DOI: 10.1039/C6CP08924K

A paper by Bei Ding, Debopreeti Mukherjee and Jianxin Chen entitled, "Do guanidinium and tetrapropylammonium ions specifically interact with aromatic amino acid side chains?" was published in PNAS. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.161807111

A recent article by Ismail Ahmed entitled, "Simple method to introduce an ester infrared probe into proteins" was published in Protein Science. DOI: doi:10.1002/pro.3076

September 2016

A paper by Beatrice Markiewicz,Wenkai Zhang, Ismail Ahmed and Thomas Troxler in colloboration with the DeGrado Lab at University of California, San Francisco was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. See it here.

August 2016

Chun-Wei Lin successfully defended his thesis. Congratulations Dr. Chun-Wei!

May 2016

A recent article by Debopreeti Mukherjee entitled, "Exciton CD Couplet Arising From Nitrile-Derivatized Aromatic Residues as a Structural Probe of Proteins" was published in Analytical Biochemistry. DOI: doi:10.1016/j.ab.2016.05.017

Rachel Abaskharon's recent article, "Direct measurement of the tryptophan-mediated photocleavage kinetics of a protein disulfide bond" was highlighted in the Atlas of Science. See it here.

A feature article by Bei Ding and Mary Rose Hilaire, entitled “Infrared and Fluorescence Assessment of Protein Dynamics: From Folding to Function” was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.6b03199

Rachel Abaskharon’s perspective, “Meandering Down the Energy Landscape of Protein Folding: Are We There Yet?” was published in Biophysical Journal. DOI: doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2016.03.030

Arusha Acharyya joined the lab. Welcome, Arusha!

April 2016

Beatrice Markiewicz successfully defended her thesis. Congrats, Dr. Bea!

March 2016

A paper by Jeffrey Rodgers, Wenkai Zhang, and Jianxin Chen in colloboration with the Brewer Lab at Franklin and Marshall College was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b00325. Be sure to check out the LiveSlides Presentation here.

An article by Wenkai Zhang and Beatrice Markiewicz is a recent cover of Issue 10 of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. See it here!

Rachel Abaskharon's paper was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. DOI: 10.1039/c6cp00865h


January 2016

A paper co-authored by Beatrice Markiewicz and Debopreeti Mukherjee was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b12233


October 2015

A paper by Kwang-Im Oh in collaboration with Giacomo Fiorin from Temple University was published in ChemPhysChem. DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201500777


Welcome to Dr. Natalia Rubtsova, who joined the lab as our newest postdoc.


August 2015

A paper by Wenkai Zhang and Beatrice Markiewicz in collaboration with the Smith Lab from UPenn was accepted to Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. DOI: 10.1039/C5CP04413H


July 2015

A review by Kwang-Im Oh, Kathryn Smith-Dupont, and Beatrice Markiewicz was published in Biopolymers. DOI: 10.1002/bip.22640


June 2015

A perspective by Mary Rose Hilaire and Rachel Abaskharon was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b00957
Be sure to check out the accompanying LiveSlides Presentation here


April 2015

A paper by Ileana Pazos, Ismail Ahmed, and an REU student Marianna Berríos entitled "Sensing pH via p-cyanophenylalanine fluorescence: Application to determine peptide pKa and membrane penetration kinetics" was published in Analytical Biochemistry. DOI: 10.1016/j.ab.2015.04.026.


Jeff Rodgers passed his candidancy exam. Congrats, Jeff!


Congratulations to Ileana Pazos, who successfully defended her thesis!


March 2015

Lev Chuntonov, Ileana Pazos, and Jianqiang Ma's paper, "Kinetics of Exchange between Zero-, One-, and Two-Hydrogen-Bonded States of Methyl and Ethyl Acetate in Methanol" was published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry B DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.5b00745.


February 2015

Mary Rose Mintzer's paper, "p-Cyanophenylalanine and Selenomethionine Constitute a Useful Fluorophore-Quencher Pair for Short Distance Measurements: Application to Polyproline Peptides" was published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics DOI: 10.1039/C5CP00050E.


January 2015

A review by Jianqiang Ma, Ileana Pazos, Wenkai Zhang, and Robert Culik was published in Annual Review of Physical Chemistry DOI: 10.1146/annurev-physchem-040214-121802


Debopreeti Mukherjee joined the lab. Welcome, Dee!


Rachel Abaskharon and Robert Culik's latest paper, "Tuning the Attempt Frequency of Protein Folding Dynamics via Transition-State Rigidification: Application to Trp-Cage" was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters DOI: 10.1021/jz502654q. Or, watch the ACS LiveSlides Presentation here: LiveSlides.


Beatrice Markiewicz was featured in SAS Frontiers. Read the article here: Blowing up Proteins


October 2014

The Nano/Bio Interface Center Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Research was awarded to Beatrice Markiewicz. Congratulations, Beatrice!


Dr. Gai received the 2014 American Chemical Society Philadelphia Section Award. This award is given to an individual "who, by conspicuous scientific achievement through research, has made important contributions to man's knowledge and thereby aided the public appreciation of the profession."


September 2014

Congratulations to Beatrice Markiewicz who was awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award from the NIH.


Rob Culik, Rachel Abaskharon, and Ileana Pazos' paper, "Experimental Validation of the Role of Trifluoroethanol as a Nano-Crowder", was accepted to Journal of Physical Chemistry B. DOI:10.1021/jp508056w


August 2014

Congratulations to Ismail, who passed his candidancy exam.


July 2014

Welcome to Bei Ding, a new postdoc in the lab.


June 2014

Dr. Gai was honored with the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowment. Below is a group photo from the celebration! example graphic


May 2014

Rachel Roesch passed her candidacy exam. Congrats, Rachel!


Robert Culik defended his thesis "Infrared Measurements of Protein Conformational Dynamics". Congrats, Rob!


Jianqiang Ma and Ileana Pazos' paper, "Microscopic Insights into the Protein-Stabilizing Effect of TMAO", was accepted to PNAS. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1403224111

April 2014

Ileana Pazos, Dr. Ayanjeet Ghosh, and Prof. Dr. Matthew Tucker's paper, "Ester Carbonyl Vibration as a Sensitive Probe of Protein Local Electric Field", was accepted to Angewandte Chemie.
DOI: 10.1002/anie.201402011


Mary Rose Mintzer passed her candidacy exam. Congrats, Mary Rose!


Rachel Roesch and Mary Rose Mintzer were awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

March 2014

Beatrice Markiewicz and Robert Culik's paper, "How Quickly Can a β-Hairpin Fold From Its Transition State?", was accepted to Journal of Physical Chemistry B. DOI: 10.1021/jp500774q


February 2014

Beatrice Markiewicz's paper, "Aggregation Gatekeeper and Controlled Assembly of Trpzip β-Hairpins", was accepted to Biochemistry. DOI: 10.1021/bi401568a


Wenkai Zhang joins the lab as a postdoc. Welcome, Wenkai!


January 2014

Ismail Ahmed and Jeffery Rodgers join the lab. Welcome, Ismail and Jeff!