Professor, BMBB

Research Interests   DNA Biophysics; Quantitative Biology; Public Engagement

A consistent theme in our research has been the biophysics of DNA. We have used a variety of experimental tools, including laser light scattering, electron microscopy and scanning probe microscopy, single molecule stretching with laser optical traps, and isothermal titration calorimetry. We have also employed a variety of theoretical techniques, including hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, polyelectrolyte theory, statistical mechanics, and computer modeling. We have particularly focused on the mechanism of condensation of DNA by multivalent cations, its response to stretching and bending forces, and its behavior in crowded, strongly interacting solutions.

In recent years my effort has largely been directed to administration, so I no longer have a research group. However, I am continuing scholarly efforts in four major areas:

• Review of mechanisms and applications of DNA condensation
• Approaches to integrating computational tools into biology and biochemistry teaching
• Public engagement in research universities
• Public policy aspects of the biological consequences of poverty

Bloomfield, V. A., Crothers, D. M. and Tinoco, I., Jr. (2000), Nucleic Acids: Structures, Properties and Functions, University Science Press, Mill Valley CA.

He, S., P.G. Arscott, and V.A. Bloomfield (2000) “Condensation of DNA by Multivalent Cations: Experimental Studies of Condensation Kinetics” , Biopolymers 53: 329-341.

Busch, N.A., T. Kim, and V.A. Bloomfield (2000), “Tracer Diffusion of Proteins in DNA Solutions. 2. Green Fluorescent Protein in Crowded DNA Solutions”. Macromolecules 33: 5932-5937.

C.G. Baumann, V.A. Bloomfield, S.B. Smith, C. Bustamante, M.D. Wang, and S.M. Block (2000) “Stretching of Single Collapsed DNA Molecules”, Biophys. J., 78: 1965-1978.

Rouzina, I. and Bloomfield, V.A. (2001) “Force-induced melting of the DNA double helix. 1. Thermodynamic analysis” Biophys. J. 80: 882-893.

Williams, M.C., Wenner, J.R., Rouzina, I. and Bloomfield, V.A. (2001) “The effect of pH on the overstretching transition of dsDNA: Evidence of force-induced DNA melting”, Biophys. J. 80: 874-881

D. Matulis, I. Rouzina, and V.A. Bloomfield (2002) Thermodynamics of Cationic Lipid Binding to DNA and DNA Condensation: Roles of Electrostatics and Hydrophobicity. J. Amer. Chem. Soc.124: 7331-7342.

K.S. Tang and V.A. Bloomfield (2002) Assessing accumulated solvent near a macromolecular solute by preferential interaction coefficients, Biophys. J. 82: 2876-2891.

Bloomfield, V.A. (2005) Ch. 11 in Peters, S.J., Jordan, N.R., Adamek, M. and Alter, T.R. (Eds.) Engaging Campus and Community: The Practice of Public Scholarship in the American Land-Grant University System. Dayton, OH: The Kettering Foundation Press.

Bloomfield, V.A (2005)., “Civic Engagement and Graduate Education”, April 2005 issue of CGS Communicator, Council of Graduate Schools.