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Kevin W. Plaxco

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry

 

Address:

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry                                                   (805) 893-5558

University of California, Santa Barbara                                                           (805) 893-4120 (fax) 

Santa Barbara, CA 93106                                                                                kwp@chem.ucsb.edu

 

Professional Experience:

Professor                                                                                                                                 ’07-

Associate Professor (with Tenure)                                                                                          ’04-‘07

Assistant Professor; Department of Chemistry and Intercollegiate Program in                       ’98-’04

Biomolecular Science and Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara        

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Washington                                                                      ’97-’98

                        Mentor: David Baker

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oxford                                                                              ’94-’96

                        Mentors: Christopher M. Dobson and Iain D. Campbell

 

Education:

Caltech                                    Ph.D.                           Molecular Biology                              ’87-’93

Mentor: William A. Goddard, III

U.C. Riverside                         B.Sc.                           Chemistry and Biochemistry               ’83-’87

Mentor: Thomas H. Morton

 

Published Articles, Reviews and Book Chapters:

 

Pre-1996

1.     Mason, F.R., Leong, F-C., Plaxco, K.W. and Morton, T.H. (1985) “Two n covalent modification of proteins: Selective labeling of Schiff base forming sites and selective blockade of the sense of smell in vivo.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 107, 6075-6084

2.     Plaxco, K.W., Mathiowetz, A.A. and Goddard, W.A. (1989) “Predictions of structural elements for the binding of hin recombinase with the hix site of DNA.” Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 86, 9841-9845

3.     Plaxco, K.W. and Goddard, W.A. III (1994) “Contributions of the thymine methyl group to the specific recognition of poly- and mono-nucleotides: An analysis of the relative free energy of solvation of thymine and uracil.”  Biochemistry, 33, 3050-3054

1996

4.     Plaxco, K.W., Spitzfaden, C., Campbell, I.D. and Dobson, C.M. (1996) “Rapid folding of a proline rich, all beta-sheet fibronectin type III domain.”  Proc. Natl. Acad.  Sci. USA, 93, 10703-10706

5.     Plaxco, K.W. and Dobson, C.M. (1996) “Time-resolved biophysical methods in the study of protein folding.” Curr. Opin. Struc. Biol., 6, 630-636

1997

6.     Plaxco, K.W., Spitzfaden, C., Campbell, I.D. and Dobson, C.M. (1997) “Comparison of the folding kinetics and thermodynamics of two homologous fibronectin type III modules.” J. Mol. Biol. 270, 763-770

7.     Plaxco K.W. and Gross, M. (1997) “The importance of being unfolded.” Nature, 386, 657-659

8.     Plaxco, K.W., Morton, C.J., Grimshaw, S., Jones, J.A., Pitkeathly, M., Campbell, I.D. and Dobson, C.M. (1997) “The effects of guanidine hydrochloride on the ‘random coil’ conformations and NMR chemical shifts of the peptide series GGXGG.” J. Biomolec. NMR, 10, 221-230

9.     Gross, M. and Plaxco, K.W. (1997) “Protein engineering: reading, writing and re-designing.” Nature, 367, 419-420

10.  O'Brien, R., Wynn, R., Driscoll, P.C., Davis, B., Plaxco, K.W., Sturtevant, J.M. and Ladbury, J.E. (1997) “The adaptability of Escherichia coli thioredoxin to non-conservative amino acid substitutions.” Prot. Sci., 6, 1325-133

1998

11.  Plaxco, K.W., Guijarro, J.I., Morton, C.J., Pitkeathly, M., Campbell, I.D. and Dobson, C.M. (1998) “The folding kinetics and thermodynamics of the FynSH3 domain.”  Biochemistry, 37, 2529-2537

12.  Guijarro, J.I., Morton, C.J., Plaxco, K.W., Campbell, I.D. and Dobson, C.M. (1998) “Folding kinetics of the SH3 domain of PI3 by real-time NMR and optical techniques.” J. Mol. Biol., 275, 657-667

13.  Plaxco, K.W., Riddle, D.S., Grantcharova, V. and Baker, D. (1998) “Simplified proteins: Minimalist solutions of the ‘protein folding problem’.”  Curr. Op.  Struct. Biol, 8, 80-85

14.  Plaxco, K.W., Simons, K.T. and Baker, D. (1998) “Contact order, transition state placement and the refolding rates of single domain proteins.” J. Mol. Biol., 277, 985-994

15.  Plaxco, K.W. (1998) “Protein chemistry comes of age.  Again.” Trends in Biotech., 16, 278

16.  Plaxco, K.W. and Baker, D. (1998) “Limited internal friction in the rate limiting conformational change of a two-state protein folding reaction.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 95, 13591-13596

17.  Plaxco, K.W. and Dobson, C.M. (1998) “Monitoring protein folding using time-resolved biophysical techniques.” in Protein Dynamics, Function and Design, O. Jardetzky and J. Lefevre, eds., Plenum Press, New York, pp 331-332


1999

18.  Plaxco, K.W., Millett, I.S., Segel, D.J., Doniach, S. and Baker, D. (1999) “Polypeptide chain collapse can occur concomitantly with the rate limiting step in protein folding.” Nat. Struct. Biol., 6, 554-557

19.  Viani, M.B., Schaffer, T.E., Paloczi, G.T., Pietrasanta, L., Smith, B.L, Thompson, J.B., Reif, M., Gaub, H.E., Plaxco, K.W., Cleland, A., Hansma, H.G. and Hansma, P.K. (1999) “Fast imaging and fast force spectroscopy of single biopolymers with anew atomic force microscope designed for small cantilevers.” Rev. Sci. Inst., 70, 4300-4303

2000

20.  Plaxco, K.W., Larson, S., Ruczinski, I., Riddle, D.S., Thayer, E.C., Buchwitz, B., Davidson, A.R. and Baker, D. (2000) “Evolutionary conservation in protein folding kinetics.” J. Mol. Biol., 298, 303-312

21.  Plaxco, K.W., Simons, K.T., Ruczinski, I. and Baker, D. (2000) “Sequence, stability, topology and length; the determinants of two-state protein folding kinetics.” Biochemistry, 39, 11177–11183

22.  Gillespie, B. and Plaxco, K.W. (2000) “Non-glassy kinetics in the folding of a simple, single domain protein.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 97, 12014-12019

2001

23.  Plaxco, K.W. and Gross, M. (2001) “Unfolded, yes, but random? Never!” Nat. Struct. Biol., 8, 659-670

2002

24.  Millet, I.S., Townsley, L., Chiti, F., Doniach, S. and Plaxco, K.W. (2002) “Equilibrium collapse and the kinetic ‘foldability’ of proteins.” Biochemistry, 41, 321-325

25.  Makarov, D.E., Keller, C.A., Plaxco, K.W. and Metiu, H. (2002) “How the folding rate constant of simple-single domain proteins depends on number of native contacts.”  Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 99, 3535-3539

26.  Larson, S., Ruczinski, I., Davidson, A.R., Baker, D. and Plaxco, K.W. (2002) “Residues participating in the protein folding nucleus do not exhibit preferential evolutionary conservation.” J. Mol. Biol., 316, 225-233

27.  Fan, C., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2002) “High-efficiency fluorescence quenching of conjugated polymers by proteins.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 124, 5642-5643

28.  Thompson, J.B., Hansma, H.H., Hansma, P.K. and Plaxco, K.W. (2002) “The backbone conformational entropy of protein folding: experimental measures from atomic force microscopy.” J. Mol. Bio., 322, 645-652

29.  Millett, I.S., Doniach, S. and Plaxco, K.W. (2002) “Towards a taxonomy of the denatured state: small angle scattering studies of unfolded proteins.” Adv. Prot. Chem., 62, 241-262

30.  Fan, C., Gillespie, B., Wang, G., Heeger, A.J. and Plaxco, K.W. (2002) “Spectroscopy and electrochemistry of the pyridine-chytochrome c complex and the pyridine-induced ‘alkaline-like’ conformation.” J.  Phys. Chem. B, 106, 11375-11383

2003

31.  Makarov, D.E. and Plaxco, K.W. (2003) “The topomer search model: a quantitative, first-principles description of two-state protein folding kinetics.” Prot. Sci., 12, 17-26

32.  Jewett, A., Pande, V.S. and Plaxco, K.W. (2003) “Cooperativity, smooth energy landscapes and the origins of topology-dependent protein folding rates.” J. Mol. Bio., 326, 247-253

33.  Fan, C., Hirasa, T., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2003) “Photoluminescence quenching of water-soluble conjugated polymers by viologen derivatives: effect of hydrophobicity.” Langmiur, 19, 3554-3556

34.  Fan, C., Wang, S., Hong, J.M., Bazan, G.C., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2003) “Beyond superquenching: hyper-efficient energy transfer from conjugated polymers to gold nanoparticles.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 100, 6297-6301

35.  Calloni, G., Taddei, N., Plaxco, K.W., Ramponi, G., Stefani, M. and Chiti, F. (2003) Comparison of the folding processes of distantly related proteins. Importance of hydrophobic content in folding.J. Mol. Bio., 330, 577-591.

36.  Gillespie, B., Vu, D., Shah, P.S., Marshall, S., Dyer, R.B., Mayo, S.L., and Plaxco, K.W. (2003) “NMR and Temperature Jump measurements of de novo designed proteins demonstrate rapid folding in the absence of explicit selection for kinetics.” J.  Mol. Bio., 330, 813-819

37.  Fan, C., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2003) “Electrochemical interrogation of conformational changes as a reagentless method for the sequence-specific detection of DNA.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 100, 9134-9137

38.  Ivankov, D.N., Alm, E., Plaxco, K.W., Baker, D. and Finkelstein, A.V. (2003) “Contact order revisited: the influence of protein size on folding rates.” Prot. Sci., 12, 2057-2062

39.  Xu, J., Ramian, G.J., Galan, J.F., Savvidis, P.G., Scopatz, A.M., Birge, R.R. Allen, S.J. and Plaxco, K.W. (2003) “Terahertz circular dichroism spectroscopy: a potential approach to unbiased, in situ life detection.” Astrobiology, 3, 489-504

2004

40.  Gillespie, B. and Plaxco, K.W. (2004) “Using protein folding rates to test protein folding theories.” Ann. Rev. Biochem. Biophys., 73, 837-859

41.  Kohn, J.E., Millett, I.S., Jacob, J., Zagrovic, B., Dillon, T., Cingel, N., Seifert, S., Thiyagarajan, P., Sosnick. T.R., Ruczinski, I., Hasan, M.Z., Pande, V.S. Doniach, S. and Plaxco, K.W (2004) “Do the dimensions of chemically unfolded proteins differ significantly from the expectations of a random-coil model?” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 101, 12491-12496

42.  Gillespie, B. and Plaxco, K.W. (2004) “Can theory predict two-state protein folding rates? An experimental perspective.” In: Forces, Growth and Form in Soft Condensed Matter: At the Interface between Physics and Biology, Skjeltorp, A.T. and Velushkin, A.V., Eds, Kluwer Academic Publishers BV, Dordrecht, Netherlands, pp 93-111

43.  Xu, J., Ramian, G.J., Galan, J.F., Savvidis, P.G., Scopatz, A.M., Birge, R.R., Allen, S.J. and Plaxco, K. (2004) “Terahertz circular dichroism spectroscopy of biomolecules.” In: Chemical and Biological Standoff Detection. J.O. Jensen and J-M. Theriault, Eds. Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 5268, pp 19-26

2005

44.  Raleigh, D.S. and Plaxco, K.W. (2005) “Plasticity and heterogeneity in the folding nucleus; what are f-values really telling us?” Prot. Pep. Sci., 12, 117-122

45.  de los Rios, M.A. and Plaxco, K.W. (2005) “Apparent Debye-Huckel electrostatic effects in the folding of a simple, single domain protein.” Biochemistry, 44, 1243-1250

46.  Maxwell, K.L., Wildes, D., Zarrine-Afsar, A., de los Rios, M.A., Brown, A.G., Friel, C.T, Hedberg, L., Horng, J-C., Bona, D., Miller, E.J., Vallée-Bélisle, A., Main, E.R.G., Bemporad, F., Qiu, L., Teilum, K., Vu, N.-D., Edwards, A.M., Ruczinski, I., Poulsen, F.M., Kragelund, B.B., Michnick, S.W., Chiti, F., Bai, Y., Hagen, S.J., Serrano, L., Oliveberg, M., Raleigh, D.P., Wittung-Stafshede, P., Radford, S.E., Jackson, S.E., Sosnick, T.R., Marqusee, S., Davidson, A.R., Plaxco, K.W. (2005) “Protein folding: defining a ‘standard’ set of experimental conditions and a preliminary kinetic data set of two-state proteins.” Prot. Sci., 14, 602-616

47.  Fan, C., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2005) Ligand-modulated electron- or energy-transfer as a biosensor signaling mechanism.” Trends Biotech., 23,186-192

48.  Kohn, J.E. and Plaxco, K.W. (2005) “Engineering of a signal-transduction mechanism for protein-based biosensors.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 102, 10841-10845

49.  McCarney, E.R., Kohn, J.E. and Plaxco, K.W. (2005) “Is there or isn’t there?  The case for (and against) residual structure in chemically denatured proteins.” Crit. Rev. Bioch. Mol. Biol., 40, 181-189

50.  Xiao, Y., Lubin, A.A., Heeger, A.J. and Plaxco, K.W. (2005) “Label-free electronic detection of thrombin in blood serum using an aptamer based sensor.” Angw. Chem. Int. Ed., 44, 2-5

51.  McCarney, E.R., Werner, J.H., Ruczinski, I., Makarov, Goodwin, P.M. and Plaxco, K.W. (2005) “Random coil dimensions in a highly denatured protein; A single molecule study.” J. Mol. Biol., 352, 672-682

52.  de los Rios, M.A., Danashi, M. and Plaxco, K.W. (2005) “Experimental investigation of the frequency and substitution dependence of negative f-values in two-state proteins.” Biochemistry, 44, 12160 -12167

53.  Xiao, Y., Piorek, B.D., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2005) “A reagentless, signal-on design for electronic aptamer-based sensors via target-induced strand displacement.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 127, 17990-17991

2006

54.  Xu, J., Plaxco, K.W. and Allen, S.J. (2006) “Absorption spectra of liquid water and aqueous buffers between 0.3 - 3.72 terahertz.” J. Chem. Phys. 124, 036101

55. de los Rios, M.A., Muralidhara, B.K., Wildes, D., Marqusee, S., Wittung-Stafshed, P., Plaxco, K.W. and Ruczinski, I. (2006) “On the precision of experimentally determined folding rates and f-values.” Prot. Sci., 15, 553-563

56.  Lai, R.Y, Lee, S-H., Soh, H., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2006) “Differential labeling of closely-spaced biosensor electrodes via electrochemical lithography.” Langmiur, 22, 1932-1936

57.  Lai, R.Y., Lagally, E.T., Lee, S.-H., Soh, T.H., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2006) “Rapid, sequence-specific detection of unpurified PCR amplicons via a reusable, electrochemical sensor.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103, 4017-4021

58.  Baker, B.R., Lai, R.Y., Wood, M.S., Doctor, E.H., Heeger, A.J. and Plaxco, K.W. (2006) “An electronic, aptamer-based small molecule sensor for the rapid, reagentless detection of cocaine in adulterated samples and biological fluids.” J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128, 3138-3139

59.  Xu, J., Plaxco, K.W. and Allen, S.J. (2006) “0.3 – 3.72 Terahertz absorption spectroscopy of a protein in liquid water.”  Prot. Sci, 15, 1175-1181

60.  Faisca, P.F.N. and Plaxco, K.W. (2006) “Cooperativity and the origins of rapid, single-exponential kinetics in protein folding.” Prot. Sci., 15, 1608-1618

61.  Lubin, A.A, Lai, R.Y., Heeger, A.J. and Plaxco, K.W. (2006) “On the sequence specificity, selectivity and reusability of E-DNA, a reagentless, electronic DNA sensor.” Anal. Chem., 78, 5671-5677

62.  Ruczinski, I., Sosnick, T.R. and Plaxco, K.W. (2006) “Methods for the accurate estimation of confidence intervals on experimental f values.” Prot. Sci., 15, 2257-2264

63.  Xiao, Y, Lubin, A.A., Baker, B.R., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2006) “Single-step electronic detection of femtomolar DNA by target-induced strand displacement in an electrode-bound duplex.Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 103, 16677-16680

64.  Oh, K.J, Cash, K.J. and Plaxco, K.W.  (2006) “Excimer-based peptide beacons; a convenient experimental approach for monitoring polypeptide-protein and polypeptide-oligonucleotide interactions.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 128, 14018-14019

65.  Seferos, D.S., Lai, R.Y., Plaxco, K.W. and Bazan, G.C. (2006) “a,w-Dithiol oligo(phenylenevinylene)s for the preparation of high-quality conjugated SAMs and nanoparticle functionalized electrodes.” Adv. Funct. Mat., 16, 2387–2392

66.  Lai, R.Y, Seferos, D.S., Heeger, A.J., Bazan, G.C. and Plaxco, K.W. (2006) “Comparison of the signaling and stability of electrochemical DNA sensors fabricated from 6- or 11-carbon self-assembled monolayers.” Langmuir, 22, 10790-10800

67.  Xu, J., Plaxco, K.W. and Allen, S.J. (2006) “The collective dynamics of lysozyme in water: terahertz absorption spectroscopy and comparison with theory.” J. Phys. Chem,, 110, 24255-24259  

2007

68.  Lai, R.Y., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2007) “Rapid, aptamer-based electrochemical detection of platelet-derived growth factor at picomolar concentrations directly in blood serum.” Anal. Chem., 79, 229-233

69.  Xu, J., Plaxco, K.W., Allen, S.J., Bjarnason, J.E. and Brown, E.R. (2007) “0.15 – 3.72 terahertz absorption of aqueous salts and saline solutions.” J. Chem. Phys., 90, 031908

70.  Xiao, Y., Rowe, A.A. and Plaxco, K.W. (2007) “Electrochemical detection of parts per billion lead via an electrode-bound DNAzyme assembly.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 129, 262 – 263

71.  Plaxco, K.W. (2007) “A biologist’s perspective on Astrobiology.” Guest essay in Universe, 8th Ed by Freedman, R.A and Kaufmann, W.J., W.H. Freeman & Company, New York, NY, pp. 28-17

72.  Werner, J.H., McCarney, E.R., Keller, R.A., Plaxco, K.W. and Goodwin, P.M. (2007) “Increasing the resolution of single pair energy transfer measurements.” Anal. Chem., 79, 3509-3513

73.  Oh, K.J., Cash, K.J., Hugenberg, V. and Plaxco, K.W. (2007) “Peptide beacons: A new design for polypeptide-based optical biosensors.” Bioconj. Chem., 18, 607-609

74.  Ricci, F., Lai, R.Y., Heeger, A.J., Plaxco, K.W. and Sumner, J.J. (2007) “Effect of molecular crowding on the response of an electrochemical DNA sensor.” Langmuir, 23, 6827-6834

75.  Wang, Z., Plaxco, K.W., and Makarov, D.E. (2007) “Influence of local, residual structure on the scaling behavior and dimensions of unfolded proteins.” Biophys. J., 86,321-328

76.  Ricci, F., Lai, R.Y. and Plaxco, K.W. (2007) “Linear, redox modified DNA probes as electrochemical DNA sensors.” Chem. Comm., 3768-3770

77.  Xiao, Y., Qu, X., Plaxco, K.W. and Heeger, A.J. (2007) “Label-free electrochemical detection of DNA in blood serum via target-induced resolution of an electrode-bound DNA pseudoknot.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., 129, 11896 - 11897

78.  Xiao, Y., Lai, R.Y., and Plaxco, K.W. (2007) “Preparation of electrode-immobilized, redox-modified oligonucleotides for electrochemical DNA and aptamer-based sensing.” Nature Prot., 2, 2875 - 2880

79.  Oh, K. J., Cash, K.J., Lubin, A.A. and Plaxco, K.W. (2007) “Chimeric peptide beacons: a direct polypeptide analog of DNA molecular beacons.” Chem. Comm., 4869 - 4871

2008

80.  Xu, J., Plaxco, K.W. and Allen, S.J. (2008) “THz spectroscopy of proteins in water: direct absorption and circular dichroism.” Int. J. High Speed Elec. Sys., 17, 709-718

81.  Lubin, A.A., Fan, C., Schafer, M., Clelland, C.T., Bancroft, C., Heeger, A.J. and Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “Rapid, electronic detection of DNA and non-natural DNA analogs for molecular marking applications.” For. Sci. Comm., 10 (1)

82.  Pavlovic, E., Lai, R.Y., Wu, T.T., Ferguson, B.S., Sun, R., Plaxco, K.W. and Soh, H.T. (2008) “Specific, electrochemical detection of multiple DNA sequences in an integrated microfluidic system.” Anal. Chem., 24, 1102 – 1107

83.  Pavel, I., McCarney, E., Elkhaled, A., Morrill, A., Plaxco, K. and Moskivits, M. (2008) “Label-free SERS detection of small proteins modified to act as bifunctional linkers.” J. Phys. Chem., 112, pp 4880 - 4883

84.  White, R.J., Phares, N., Lubin, A.A. Xiao, Y. and Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “Optimization of electrochemical aptamer-based sensors by controlling surface probe densities and surface attachment chemistry.” Langmuir, 24, 10513–10518

85.  Ricci, F. and Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “E-DNA: a convenient, label-free method for the electrochemical detection of hybridization.” Microchim. Acta, 163, 149-155

2009

86.  Ruczinski, I. and Plaxco, K.W. (2009) “Some recommendations for the practitioner to improve the precision of experimentally determined protein folding rates and f values.” Proteins, Struc. Func. Genet., 74, 461-474

87.  Plaxco, K.W. and Gross, M. (2008) “Protein complexes: The evolution of symmetry.” Curr. Biol., 19, R25-26

88.  Cash, K.J., Heeger, A.J., Plaxco, K.W. and Xiao, Y. (2008) “Optimization of a reusable, DNA pseudoknot-based electrochemical sensor for sequence-specific DNA detection in blood serum.” Anal. Chem., 81, 656-661

89.  Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “At the heart of the matter: Chemistry and the origins of life.” Chem. World, In press.

90.  Xiao, Y. and Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “Electrochemical aptamer sensors.” in: Functional nucleic acids for sensing and other analytical applications, Y. Lu and Y. Li, Eds.  Kluwer/Springer. In press.

91.  Phares, N., White, R.J. and Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “Improving the stability and sensing of electrochemical biosensors by employing trithiol-anchoring groups in a six-carbon self-assembled monolayer.” Anal. Chem., In press.

92.  Ricci, F., Bonham, A.J., Reich, N.O. and Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “A reagentless, electrochemical approach for the specific detection of double- and single-stranded DNA binding proteins.” Anal. Chem., In press.

93.  Lubin, A.A., Vander Stoep Hunt, B. and Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “The effects of probe length, probe geometry and redox-tag placement on the performance of the electrochemical E-DNA sensor .” Anal. Chem., In press.

94.  Oh, K.J., Cash, K.J. and Plaxco, K.W. (2008) “Beyond Molecular Beacons: optical sensors based on the binding-induced folding of proteins and polypeptides.” Chem. Europ. J., In press.

95.  Swenson, J.S., Xiao, Y., Ferguson, B.S., Lai, R.Y., Heeger, A.J., Plaxco, K.W. and Soh, T. (2008) “Continuous, real-time monitoring of cocaine in undiluted, unmodified blood serum via a microfluidic, aptamer-based sensor.” J. Am. Chem. Soc., In press.

96.  Xiao, Y., Uzawa, T., White, R.J., DeMartini, D. and Plaxco, K.W. (2009) “On the signaling of electrochemical, aptamer-based sensors: collision- and folding-based mechanisms.” Electroanalysis, Submitted.

97.  Ricci, F., Zari, N., Caprio, F., Recine, S., Amine, A., Moscone, D., Palleschi, G. and Plaxco, K.W. (2009) “Surface chemistry effects on the performance of an electrochemical DNA sensor.” Bioelectrochemistry, Submitted.

Books:

1.     Plaxco, K.W. and Gross, M. (2006) Astrobiology; A Brief Introduction Johns Hopkins University Press. 

2.     Plaxco, K.W. and Gross, M. (2009) Astrobiology; A Brief Introduction, 2nd Edition Johns Hopkins University Press, In press.

Patents:

1.     Plaxco, K.W. and Kayyem, J.F. “Biosensors utilizing ligand-induced conformation changes.” US Patent 6432723 Awarded 8/13/2003

2.     Fan, C., Heeger, A.J. and Plaxco, K.W. “Electronic-DNA sensors and DNA authentication.”  Pending, submitted 2003

3.     Xiao, Y., Lubin, A., Plaxco, K.W. “A signal-on architecture for electronic, oligonucleotide-based sensors via target-induced strand displacement.” Pending, submitted 2005

4.     Kash, K.J., Ricci, F. and Plaxco, K.W. “Devices and methods for electrochemical detection of molecules.”  Pending, submitted 2009

Invited Seminar Presentations:

1998

1.     “The Determinants of Protein Folding Kinetics.” Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSC, Santa Cruz, CA 05/22/98

2.     “The Determinants of Protein Folding Kinetics.” Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, UCSF, San Francisco, CA 05/23/98

1999

3.     “The Determinants of Protein Folding Kinetics.” Department of Biochemistry, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 3/10/99

4.     “The Determinants of Protein Folding Kinetics.” Department of Chemistry, University of Arkansas, Fayettville, AK, 3/11/99

5.     “The Determinants of Protein Folding Kinetics.” Department of Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 5/10/99

6.     “The Determinants of Protein Folding Kinetics.” Oxford Centre for Molecular Sciences, Oxford University, Oxford, England, 10/1/99

2000

7.     “Protein Folding Kinetics.” Buroughs Welcome Quantitative Challenges Symposium, San Diego, CA, 1/6/00

8.     “The Determinants of Protein Folding Kinetics.” Department of Physics and Astronomy, Cal State Northridge, Northridge, CA, 1/15/00

9.     “Proteins as materials.” Material Outreach Program, UCSB, 2/29/00

10.  “The Determinants of Protein Folding Kinetics.” Biosciences Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, 3/13/00

11.  “Protein folding made simple(r).” Institute for Theoretical Physics, UCSB, 11/08/00

12.  “Theory and experiment meet in the folding of the simplest proteins.” First Experimentalist’s Seminar in Blue Gene Seminar Series, IBM, Yorktown, New York, 07/23/00

13.   “Theory and experiment meet…” Department of Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 11/28/00

2001

14.  “Folding-based sensors and materials”, Material Outreach Program, UCSB, 2/1/1

15.  “Theory and experiment meet …” IBM Blue Gene folding workshop, San Diego, CA, 3/30/1

16.  “Theory and experiment meet…” International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy, 6/19/1

17.  “Protein folding made simple(r).” Department of Biochemistry, University di Firenze, Florence, Italy, 6/26/1

18.  “Theory and experiment meet...” Department of Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology, UCSB, 10/11/1

2002

19.  “From theory to experiment to application in protein folding kinetics.” Materials Outreach Program, UCSB, 2/6/2

20.  “Theory, experiment and the folding of the simplest proteins.” Department of Biochemistry, Texas South West Medical Center, Dallas, TX, 3/5/2

21.  “Theory, experiment and the folding of the simplest proteins.” Department of Chemistry, University of Texas, Austin, TX, 3/7/2

22.  “Theory, experiment and the folding of the simplest proteins.” Inaugural seminar in new, Biochemistry and Bioengineering joint series, Departments of Bioengineering and Biochemistry, Washington University Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO, 13/3/2

23.  “Theory, experiment and the folding of the simplest proteins.” American Physical Society Fall Meeting, Indianapolis, IN, 3/21/2

24.  “Theory, experiment and the folding of the simplest proteins.” Department of Chemistry, UC Irvine, Irvine, CA, 4/14/2

25.  “Protein folding made simple(r).” Department of Chemistry, Pomona Colleges, Claremont CA, 4/16/2

26.  “Protein folding made simple(r).” Department of Chemistry, Cal State Long Beach, Long Beach CA, 4/17/2

27.  “My protein folds faster than yours; a simple theory of protein folding kinetics.” Institute for Theoretical Physics, UCSB, 6/13/2

28.  “Protein folding: theory and application.” So. Cal. Nanotriangle Meeting, Marina Del Ray, CA, 7/9/2

29.  “My protein folds faster than yours: testing theories of relative folding rates.” Departments of Chemistry and Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, UC Berkeley 9/24/2

30.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Institute for Protein Research, Russian Academy of Sciences, Puschino, Russia, 10/2/2

31.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Polish Academy of Sciences and University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland, 10/4/2

32.  “The theory and application of a nanoscale self-assembly process (A.K.A. Protein folding).” Centrum fur NanoScience Workshop, Munich, Germany, 10/7/2

33.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Chemistry, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany, 10/9/2

34.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Chemical Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 10/24/2

35.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Molecular Biology Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 11/14/2

36.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Biochemistry, University of Chicago, Chicago IL, 11/20/2

37.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” PENCE Seminar, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada 11/21/2

38.  “Terahertz circular dichroism as an unbiased, in situ life detection technology.” American Geophysical Society Fall Meeting, San Francisco, CA, 12/07/2

2003

39.  “My protein folds faster than yours...” Department of Chemistry, UConn, Storrs, CT 2/26/3

40.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Chemistry, UPenn, Philadelphia, PA 2/27/3

41.  “Why is protein folding so slow?” Hopkins Folding Meeting, Berkeley Springs, W.V. 3/23/3

42.  “Protein folding from theory to experiment to application.”  (Instructor) NATO ASI Workshop on Topological Effects in Soft Condensed Matter, Geilo, Norway 3/28/3

43.  “The topomer search model of protein folding.” American Physiology Society, San Diego, CA 4/13/3

44.  “My protein folds faster than yours...” Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSB, Santa Barbara, CA 4/21/3

45.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Physics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 5/9/3

46.  “Why is protein folding so slow?” CECAM Protein Folding Workshop, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Lyon, France 9/10/3

47.  “My protein folds faster than yours...” Department of Crystallography, Birkbeck College, University of London, London UK 9/8/3

48.  “My protein folds faster than yours...” Department of Chemistry, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK 9/15/3

49.   “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Physics, Leeds University, Leeds UK 9/18/3

50.  “My protein folds faster than yours...” Department of Chemistry, Cal State LA, 10/7/3

50.  “My protein folds faster than yours...” Interdepartmental Structural Biology Seminar, University of Florida, 10/20/3

51.   “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Chemistry, Cal Poly San Louis Obisbo, 11/6/3

52.  “My protein folds faster than yours...” Interdepartmental Biophysics Seminar, Department of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 11/19/3

53.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Chemistry, SUNY Stony Brooke, Stony Brooke, NY 11/21/3

54.  “My protein folds faster than yours...” Department of Chemistry, University of Delaware, 11/24/3

2004

55.  “Better living through biosensors.” CNSI Brown Bag Lunch Seminar, UCSB, 1/8/4

56.  “Spectroscopy, scattering and simulations; putting constraints on residual denatured state structure.” Computational Aspects of Biomolecular NMR Gordon Research Conference, Ventura CA 1/22/4

57.  “Metals in folding.” Session chair/introduction, Metals in Biology Gordon Research Conference, Ventura CA 1/20/4

58.  “Better Living through Biosensors.” California NanoSystems Institute Seminar Series, UCLA 2/3/4

59.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Chemistry, USC 2/9/4

60.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Basic Science Division, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 2/17/4

61.  “Cooperativity and the predictability of protein folding rates.” ACS Meeting, Anaheim, CA 4/1/4

62.  “The direct, electronic detection of DNA” Panel discussion as part of “Advance Sensor Technologies” outreach program US-Asia Technology Management Center, Stanford University 4/8/4

63.  “Better living through biosensors.” Physical Chemistry Seminar, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSB 4/12/4

64.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSC 4/28/4

65.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics, UCLA 5/6/4

66.  “Reconciling the behavior of simple toy models with that of real proteins.” Workshop on Structure and Function of Biomolecules, Bedlewo, Poland 5/14/4

67.   “Better living through biosensors.” Bioengineering Graduate Program, UCSF 5/27/4

68.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Chemical Physics Seminar, Caltech 6/2/4

69.  “Does your protein fold fast enough?” Amgen Award Lecture, Society for Industrial Microbiology Annual Meeting, Anaheim, California 7/27/4

70.  “On the predictability of protein folding rates.” FEBS Summer Conference “Folding in the Cell,” Vermont 8/4/4

71.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Leloir Institute, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires Argentina 9/4/4

72.  “Does your protein fold fast enough?” Amgen, Inc. Thousand Oaks, CA 9/9/4

73.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Chemistry, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 10/22/4

74.  “My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Biochemistry, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC 10/26/4

75.  My protein folds faster than yours…” Department of Biochemistry, Rice University, Houston, TX 11/15/4

76.  “Better living through biosensors.” DakoCytomation, Inc., Camarillo, CA 11/30/4

77.  “Why is protein folding so slow?” Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, UCSD, San Diego, CA 12/2/4

78.  “Better living through Biosensors” Center for Theoretical Biophysics, UCSD, San Diego, CA 12/3/4

79.  “A biologist’s true confession: proteins are polymers after all.” Workshop of the Center of Protein Folding Machinery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 12/4/4

2005

80.  “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Biomolecular Engineering, UCSC, Santa Cruz 3/1/5 

81.  “Unraveling the denatured state.” TSRC Workshop on Protein Dynamics, Telluride, CO 2/8/5

82.  “Better Living Through Biosensors.” International Summer School on Biomaterials, UCSB, 10/9/5

83.  “My protein folds faster than yours: an experimentalist’s view of protein-folding theory.” Genencore, Inc., San Francisco, CA 8/19/5

84.   “Better living through biosensors.” CALPACS Fall Luncheon, Buelton, CA 1/10/5

85.   “A biologist’s true confession: proteins are polymers after all.”  U. Iowa, Ames, IA 17/10/5

86.  “Better living through biosensors.” Chemistry Department Colloquium, Stanford University, 27/10/5

87.  “Better living through biosensors.” Materials Department Colloquium, UCSB, 17/11/5

2006

88.   “Looking for the landscape.” Session Chair, Protein Folding Gordon Research Conference, Ventura, CA 12/1/6

89.  “Better living through biosensors” Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 1/24/6

90.  “From playing with toys to predicting protein folding rates.” Keystone Symposium: Frontiers in Structural Biology, Keystone, CO 3/2/6

91.  “Better living through biosensors.” Somalogic, Inc. Boulder CO 3/9/6

92.  “My protein folds faster than yours; theory and experiment in protein folding.” Keynote Address, Southern Symposium on Computational Chemistry, Jackson, MI 4/8/6

93.  “Better living through biosensors.” Bio-Engineering/Chemistry joint seminar, Rice University, Houston, TX 4/20/6

94.  “How I hope to save the world (and make a million bucks) through folding.” Keynote Address, Texas Folders Meeting, Camp Allen, TX 4/21/6

95.  “Terahertz absorption spectroscopy: a direct experimental probe of global and sub-global collective modes.” Steenbock Symposium, U. Wisconsin, Madison WI 5/18/6

96.  “Biosensors and nano-medicine; the future is looking very, very small.” Introductory Address, 12th German-American Frontiers of Science Symposium. Potsdam, Germany 21/6/6

97.  “My protein folds faster than yours: an experimentalist’s view of protein folding theory.” Max Plank Institute, Postdam, Germany 23/6/6

98.   “Folding-based biosensors.” Asia-Pacific Workshop on Biological Physics, Singapore, 5/7/6

99.  “Better living through biosensors.” Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona) 9/15/6

100.   “The nature of chemically- and physiologically-unfolded states.” CECAM Protein Folding Workshop, Lyon, France 9/20/6

101.   “My protein folds faster.” PSTAT seminar, Department of Statistics and Applied Probability, UCSB 10/4/6

102.   “Better living through Biosensors.” Department of Chemistry, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 10/16/6

103.   “Better living through Biosensors.”  External speaker, Biophysics/Physics biannual joint seminar, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. 11/13/6

104.   “Predetermination, randomness and the nature of the unfolded state.” Rice Computational Biology Workshop, Houston, TX 12/16/6

2007

105.   “Better living through Biosensors.” Mech. E. Colloquium, UCSB 1/8/7

106.   “Better living through Biosensors.” Santa Barbara Science & Engineering Council, 1/11/7

107.    “Folding-based Biosensors.”  Gordon Research Conference on Electrochemistry, Ventura, CA 1/20/7

108.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Biochemistry, U. Wisconsin, Madison 1/23/7

109.   “Folding-based electronic biosensors.” CNSI Brown Bag Lunch Seminar, CNSI, UCSB 2/8/7

110.   “Folding-based biosensors for pathogen and small molecule detection.” USAMRIID, Fort Detrick, MD, 2/18/7

111.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Bioengineering, Washington University St. Louis, MI 2/23/7

112.   “Better living through Biosensors.” Chemistry Division, Los Alamos Natl. Lab., Los Alamos, NM 6/13/7

113.   “Unwraveling the unfolded state.” Protein Society Annual Meeting, Boston, MA 7/22/7

114.   “Better living through biosensors.”  Chemical Engineering, UC Berkeley, Berkeley CA 8/29/7

115.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Physics, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 9/25/7

116.   “Better living through biosensors.” Plenary lecture, Third International Workshop on Biosensors for Food Safety and Environmental Monitoring, Fez, Morocco 10/20/7

117.   “Biosensors for affordable molecular diagnostics and environmental monitoring.” Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana 11/14/7

118.   “Biosensors for affordable molecular diagnostics and environmental monitoring.” Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana 11/28/7

2008

119.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Chemistry, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, 2/18/8

120.   “Better living through biosensors.” Center for the Study of Systems Biology, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA 2/19/8

121.   “Is the ‘God’ hypothesis a unique theory of apparent ‘miracles’?” Veritas Forum, UCSB, 2/20/8

122.   “Signal transduction across the biology/technology interface.” Symposium Organizer, Materials Research Society March meeting, San Francisco, CA 3/24-27/8

123.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Chemistry, U of I Urbana-Champaign, 4/24/8

124.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Chemistry, UNLV, Las Vegas, NV 5/16/8

125.   “Better living through biosensors.” Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche; Università di Roma Tor Vergata 6/14/8

126.   “Reagenteless, electrochemical aptasensors for real-time threat detection.” Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 7/29/8

127.   “Reagenteless, electrochemical aptasensors for real-time threat detection.” Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi, MD 7/30/8

128.   “Terahertz spectroscopy: a new experimental probe of biomolecular dynamics.” ACS Fall Meeting, Philadelphia, PA 8/17/8

129.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Chemistry, Cal State Northridge, Northridge CA 10/9/8

130.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Chemistry, Penn State, University Park, PA 11/19/8

131.   “Better living through biosensors.” Department of Biochemistry, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 11/21/8

2009

132.   “Biomolecular Folding: the applications of a nanometer-scale self-assembly process.” Nanobiophysics Conference, St. Johns, Antigua and Barbuda, 21/1/9

 

Former PhD students, thesis titles and defense dates:

1.     Miguel A. de los Rios “Snapshots of the Folding Transition State.” 5/9/5

2.     Evan McCarney “Single Molecule Studies of the Unfolded State.” 6/4/5

3.     Jonathan E. Kohn “The Physics and Applications of Unfolded Proteins.” 12/10/5

4.     Jing Xu (co-advisor with S. James Allen) “Terahertz Collective Dynamics of Biopolymers.” 7/25/6

5.     Kenneth J. Oh “Peptide Beacons: a General, Polypeptide-based Sensing Platform.” 9/21/7

 

Sabbatical visitors:

1.     Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Winfried Boos, Microbiology, University of Konstanz; Spring 2003

2.     Prof. Ingo Ruczinski, Department of Biostatistics, Johns Hopkins University; Winter 2006

3.     Prof. Xiaogang Qu, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Winter 2007

4.     Prof. Dimitri Makarov, Department of Chemistry, U.T. Austin; Summer and Winter 2008

 

  Other Professional Contributions:

Consultant, Clinical Microsensors, Inc. (1999-2002)

Instructor, NATO Workshop on Soft Condensed Matter Physics, Geilo, Norway (March ’03)

International Advisory Committee, Newton School in Physics, Cambridge, UK (Winter ’04)

Advisory Committee, Polish Academy of Sciences-European Physical Society Workshop Structure and Function in Biomolecules, Bedlewo, Poland (May ’04)

Editorial Member, Faculty of 1000 (2002-2005)

Editorial Advisory Board Protein Science (2005-)

Session organizer, Materials Research Society Spring Symposium (March ’08)

Ad hoc panelist (multiple panels) on MSF-B (Macromolecular Structure and Function B) and ISD (Instrument and Systems Design) NIH study sections

Reviewer/site visitor/panelist for NIH, UCBioSTAR, SSRL, NSF, ACS, ASF, DOE

Regular reviewer for: Science, Nature, PNAS, Nat. Struc. Bio., JMB, Biochemistry, JACS, JCP, Phys. Rev. Let., Proteins, Prot. Sci., Langmuir, Collection of Czechoslovak Chemical Communications, Nuc. Acid Res., Bioinorg. Chem., Anal. Chem.

  Educational and Personal Interests:

Chem 147: Astrobiology and the origins of life

Chem 142: Biochemistry

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