rosalie tran

Joint graduate student research assistant under the supervision of Professors Richard Mathies and Michael Marletta. Applied resonance Raman spectroscopy to studying heme structure and conformational changes in the Heme-Nitric oxide/OXygen (H-NOX) binding domain. Used site-directed mutagenesis, metal substitution, and isotopic substitution to probe protein pocket influences on the heme structure. Experienced in recombinant protein expression and purification in E. coli.

Research assistant, under the supervision of Professor Phoebe K. Dea, using analytical and biophysical approaches to study model membrane systems. Investigated the influence of molecules (such as chlorpromazine, cholesterol, and ethanol) on phospholipid bilayer stability using a combination of fluorescence spectroscopy, anisotropy, and calorimetry.

NIH postdoctoral fellow working with Drs. Vittal Yachandra and Junko Yano to probe the mechanism of water oxidation in Photosystem II (PSII) using X-ray absorption (XANES, EXAFS) and X-ray emission spectroscopy. Other projects include time-resolved X-ray spectroscopy/X-ray diffraction studies on PSII at the Linac Coherent Light Source and X-ray spectroscopic characterization of inorganic compounds that mimic the Oxygen-Evolving Complex in PSII. Experienced in maintaining a large-scale (30 liter) photobioreactor for culturing cyanobacteria and protein purification (FPLC).

Dissertation title: "Probing the heme structure and environment of bacterial Heme-Nitric oxide/OXygen binding domains with resonance Raman spectroscopy"

Undergraduate honors thesis: "Fluorescence and Calorimetry Studies on Alcohol and Sterol Interactions with Lipid Bilayers"