Department of ChemistryRichard S. Preisler
 |
Associate Professor & Chair Biochemistry Office: 547 Smith Phone: (410)704-3055 E-mail: rpreisler@towson.edu Website: http://pages.towson.edu/preisler |
| Education | B.Sc. (1974) Brown University, magna cum laude Ph.D. (1980) Stanford University Postdoctoral associate (1980-1982) University of Pennsylvania |
| Teaching |
General Chemistry I,II (CHEM 110/111) Biochemistry I (CHEM 351) |
| Research | My research group is interested in the biophysics of DNA conformations, particularly in the transition between righthanded B-DNA and lefthanded Z-DNA. I am collaborating with Professor Alan Pribula in the Department of Chemistry on an investigation of the ability of various transition metal complexes to bind to DNA and induce the B-to-Z transition. We are studying the effects of ionic charge, hydrogen bonding potential and stereochemistry of complexes. Another interesting aspect of DNA conformation is hydration. My group has used the technique of osmotic stress, placing DNA in an environment with high concentrations of an osmolyte such as sucrose, to explore the effect of removal of water of hydration on the conformation. We use primarily the spectroscopic method of circular dichroism (CD) to analyze the DNA conformation. |
| Selected Publications |
|
Faculty & Staff
Department of Chemistry
Smith Hall 543
Towson University
8000 York Road
Towson, MD 21252