George J. Thomas, Jr.
Curators' Professor, CBB
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Office: 403 BSB
Phone: (816) 235-2255
E-mail: ThomasGJ
Laboratory Web Site
Research Areas
Virus structure and assembly, protein-nucleic acid recognition, DNA and RNA structures, protein conformation; development of laser Raman spectroscopy as a probe of structure, interaction and dynamics of biomolecules and macromolecular assemblies.
Current Interests
"The principal objective of our research is to understand the molecular basis of protein-nucleic acid recognition. Current studies focus on viruses, telomeric DNA complexes and gene regulatory systems. The specific aims of this work are to: (i) determine the interactions of protein and nucleic acid subgroups leading to the proper assembly and stability of viruses and chromosomal assemblies; (ii) establish the detailed structures and conformations of nucleic acid and protein molecules in these assemblies; and (iii) identify chemical and biological factors which control stability and polymorphism in macromolecular complexes. These aims are pursued by combining biochemical and molecular biological probes with state-of-the-art spectroscopic methods, including laser Raman, ultraviolet resonance Raman (UVRR) and Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. The structural interpretation of results on viruses and other nucleoprotein assemblies is aided by parallel studies of model nucleic acids, proteins and their complexes. Studies are in progress on filamentous bacterial viruses (Ff, Pfl, PH75), icosahedral bacteriophages (P22, HK97, phi29, PRD1, phi6, CPMV), the capsid protein of HIV, phage repressor-operator complexes, and ciliate and human telomeric DNA."
Research Support
This research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health.
