PROFESSOR BERNARD CHASAN

Boston University Physics Department 590 Commonwealth Avenue Office: Room 213 Lab: Room 226 Phone: 617-353-2608 Fax: 617-353-9393 E-mail: bc@buphyc.bu.edu

My research (in loose collaboration with Professors El-Batanouny, Willis, and Horacio Cantiello of Massachusetts General Hospital) is concerned with the molecule ACTIN, which is part of the mammalian muscle apparatus, but is also involved in a huge range of cellular motions. Preliminary results from far infrared spectra suggest the presence of structural water in actin fibers; we speculate that this polymer is held together by water mediated hydrogen bonds between the monomer units. Further work to study this is planned, including Raman spectroscopy. We are also in the early stages of atomic force microscopy studies of this fascinating molecule, including the conditions under which the fibers form biologically important bundles, the polymerization process itself, and its behavior in various solution environments.