Gary Pielak
Kenan Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics; Jointly appointed with the School of Medicine
Genome Sciences Building 3250919-962-4495
gary_pielak@unc.edu
Group Website
Curriculum Vitae
Research Interests
Protein Biophysics Emphasizing Studies in Living Cells
Research Synopsis
My graduate students and I work in two areas: High-resolution protein NMR studies in living cells. Biophysics of tardigrade dessication-tolerance proteins.
Professional Background
BS Chem., Bradley U, 1977; PhD Biochemistry, with J. Ivan Legg, Washington State U, 1983; Postdoc with Michael Smith, U British Columbia, 1983-1986; Postdoc with Robert JP Williams, Oxford. 1986-1988; DuPont Young Faculty Award; Morrow Young Faculty Award; NIH Pioneer Award; National Science Foundation Program Director; UNC Lifetime Mentor Award; UNC Medical School Excellence in Basic Science Mentoring Award
Research Group
News & Publications
The Pielak Lab's research "Resolving the enthalpy of protein stabilization by macromolecular crowding" is featured on the May issue of Protein Science.
To resolve the effect of crowding on protein stability, we use 19F nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to follow the reversible, two-state unfolding thermodynamics of the N-terminal Src homology 3 domain of the Drosophila signal transduction protein drk in the presence of polyethylene glycols (PEGs) of various molecular weights and concentrations.