Neal Woodbury
Director, Center for BioOptical Nanotechnology
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
PhD, University of Washington, 1986
Home Department Chemistry and Biochemistry
Areas of Study Photosynthesis, Patterned Chemistry, Molecular Evolution, Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Ultrafast Spectroscopy
Link Personal Homepage


Background Our laboratory works in three different but synergistic areas. The first, and longest standing, area is the very first reaction involved in the solar energy conversion process of photosynthesis. Here we do a combination of both mutagenesis, altering the photosynthetic apparatus in specific ways, and laser-pulsed spectroscopy, observing the energy and electron transfer reactions that are involved in the reactions that store light energy by monitoring the absorbance and fluorescence spectra as a function of time. The time scale of these reactions is very fast, on the order of picoseconds. What we are learning is that there is a diversity of chemistry that can take place in the protein pigment complexes that make up the photosynthetic apparatus and that this chemistry can be controlled by such things as redox potential changes in cofactors and the wavelength of the light used to initiate the reaction. We are both interested in understanding the role of these multiple chemical pathways in nature and in using this understanding as a framework for the design of molecular scale electronic devices. The second area is single molecule spectroscopy of DNA protein interactions, particularly the nucleosome. Here we are interested in understanding in detail the dynamics of DNA/nucleosome movement, particularly with respect to any effect that may have on transcription. Finally, we have become very interested in developing methods for high throughput rational design of molecules and patterned chemical surfaces. This is a matter of co-opting the chemistry developed in the DNA chip industry to make a variety of other chemical constructs in high densities on surfaces. This is being used to develop artificial ligands, catalysts and new materials.

The structure of a single nucleosome
NealWoodbury.jpg
Neal Woodbury
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Arizona State University
Box 871604
Tempe, AZ 85287-1604 USA

phone: (480) 965-3294
fax: (480) 965-2747
email: nwoodbury@asu.edu
[Publication] T Northen, D Brune & N Woodbury (2006) Synthesis and Characterization of Peptide Grafted Porous Polymer Microstructures. Biomacromolecules 7: 750-754
[Publication] E Katilius, Z Katiliene & NW Woodbury (2006) Singlaling aptamers created using fluorescent nucleotide analogs. Analytical Chemistry 78 (18): 6484-6489
[Publication] E Katilius & N Woodbury (2006) Multi-photon exitation of fluorescent DNA base analogs. J.Biomed.Opt. 11: 044004
[Publication] S Lin, E Katilius, RP Ilagan, GN Gibson, HA Frank & NW Woodbury (2006) Mechanism of carotenoid singlet excited state energy transfer in modified bacterial reaction centers. J. Phys. Chem. B 110 (31): 15556-15563