Steven Corcelli, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame, recently published his research in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters in a cover story entitled, “Molecular Dynamics Simulations of DNA Solvation Dynamics.” The article explores time-dependent Stokes shift experiments of fluorescent probe molecules incorporated into DNA, which uncovered a broad range of time scales. The article reviews the conclusions of various computational studies, more specifically a series of recent molecular dynamics simulations that have investigated the longest solvation dynamics time scales with sometimes conflicting interpretations.
Corcelli graduated from Brown University in 1997 with a Sc.B. in chemistry and received a Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University in 2002 as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow. Supported by the Ruth L. Kirschtein National Research Service Award, Corcelli trained with James Skinner at the University of Wisconsin before joining the faculty at the University of Notre Dame in 2005. He has been awarded the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Faculty Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and a National Science Foundation CAREER award.
Kristina E. Furse is a co-author on the study. From 2006 to 2010, Dr. Furse was a postdoctoral research associate in the Corcelli laboratory. She is presently a Visualization Scientist at the Center for Research Computing at the University of Notre Dame.