{"id":2416,"date":"2016-10-21T14:30:53","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T18:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/its-cuthemedev1.carleton.ca\/chemistry\/?post_type=cu_event&#038;p=2416"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:56:36","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:56:36","slug":"occi-lecture-series-professor-rebecca-jockusch","status":"publish","type":"cu_event","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/event\/occi-lecture-series-professor-rebecca-jockusch\/","title":{"rendered":"OCCI Lecture Series: Professor Rebecca Jockusch"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"mb-6 cu-pageheader cu-component-updated md:mb-12\">\n    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 pb-5 after:w-10 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px\">\n        \n    <\/h1>\n    \n        <\/header>\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    <div class=\"cu-buttongroup cu-component-updated flex flex-wrap md:flex-1 gap-3 md:gap-5 justify-start\">\n                                                                        <\/div>\n    \n<h2 id=\"new-tools-to-probe-biomolecules-in-minimalist-environments\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">New Tools to Probe Biomolecules in&nbsp;Minimalist Environments<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Rebecca Jockusch<br>\nDepartment of Chemistry<br>\nUniversity of Toronto<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Abstract:&nbsp;The function of biological molecules is dependent on properties including&nbsp;biomolecular structure, stability, dynamics and interactions. While the complexity of&nbsp;the native environment is desirable for function, isolation of biological molecules&nbsp;from their normal environment provides valuable simplification, allowing study of&nbsp;their intrinsic properties. My research program combines trapping mass&nbsp;spectrometry with optical spectroscopic techniques in order to characterize&nbsp;properties of biomolecules and their complexes in a highly-controlled gas-phase&nbsp;environment. In particular, we are pursuing the use of fluorescence and fluorescence&nbsp;resonance energy transfer (FRET) techniques to probe the conformation of relatively&nbsp;large gaseous ions and complexes. Here, I present results from FRET experiments on&nbsp;the B1 domain of protein G (GB1) after it was transferred into the gas phase using&nbsp;electrospray ionization (ESI). Energy transfer measurements of isolated GB1 show a&nbsp;marked decrease in the FRET efficiency with increasing number of charges on the&nbsp;gaseous protein, which suggests a Coulombically driven unfolding and expansion of&nbsp;its structure. This lies in stark contrast to the pH stability of GB1 in solution and&nbsp;highlights the importance of solvent effects in maintaining the protein fold. I will also&nbsp;discuss some of our recent work benchmarking the intrinsic (gas-phase) photophysical&nbsp;properties of ionic dyes that are commonly used in chemistry and the<br>\nbiosciences and examining how these properties are modulated by specific molecular&nbsp;interactions.&nbsp;Together, this work&nbsp;forms a basis from&nbsp;which to better&nbsp;understand how noncovalent<br>\ninteractions,&nbsp;including those with&nbsp;the solvent, affect the&nbsp;properties of&nbsp;molecules ranging in&nbsp;size from small&nbsp;organic dyes to&nbsp;proteins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_event_type":[],"cu_event_audience":[],"class_list":["post-2416","cu_event","type-cu_event","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"cu_event_start_date":"2016-10-28T10:00:00","cu_event_end_date":"2016-10-28T11:30:00","cu_event_location_type":"in-person","cu_event_meeting_address_type":"on-campus","cu_building":"TB","cu_event_meeting_room":"208","cu_event_meeting_address_full":null,"cu_event_virtual_type":"tbd","cu_event_virtual_meeting_link":"","cu_post_thumbnail":false,"cu_event_cost":"","cu_event_registration":"","cu_event_secondary_button":"","cu_event_contact_name":"","cu_event_email":"","cu_event_phone":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event\/2416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_event"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event\/2416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_event_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event_type?post=2416"},{"taxonomy":"cu_event_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_event_audience?post=2416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}