B. Montgomery Pettitt, PhD Professor

B. Montgomery Pettitt, PhDDirector, Sealy Center for Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry,
Departments of Pharmacology & Toxicology
and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
5.226 Research Bldg 6
Route: 0304 | Tel: | Fax: (409) 772-0725 | mpettitt@utmb.edu

Lab Web Page

Research

The research in my laboratory involves work in the areas of : (1) Biochemistry, (2) Chemical Physics/Physical Chemistry and (3) Computer Science. In particular:

  1. Predicting the thermodynamic pressures including the osmotic pressure necessary to confine DNA in bacteriophages.
  2. Effects of cosolvents and ions on structrures of proteins and nucleic acis in multicomponent aqueous solutions.
  3. Effects of anisotropic environments, e.g., electric fields, solvent gradients and density waves near surfaces, on DNA and proteins tethered to surfaces.
  4. Theory and computational methods to investigate solution systems with couplings and correlations at many disparate length and time scales.
  5. Computational theory of exotic statistical ensembles and sampling methods, especially, the sampling issues of chemical potential related to phase behavior.