Abraham Lenhoff

Title: Allan P. Colburn Professor of Chemical Engineering
Office: University of Delaware

The Molecular Sociology of Proteins

 

Abstract: Protein solutions are ubiquitous in bioprocessing, structural biology and in nature, making it important to understand and predict their physical and thermodynamic properties, including formation of dense phases such as precipitates, crystals, gels and aggregates. The anisotropic shape and chemical character of protein molecules, on which extensive information down to the atomic level is available from X-ray crystallography, add considerable complexity, especially in describing intermolecular interactions and phase behavior – the molecular sociology. In particular, the statistical mechanics of anisotropy, including the contributions of strongly attractive interactions guided by the same mechanisms that give rise to biomolecular recognition, can lead to counterintuitive consequences. This presentation will explore these consequences, with an emphasis on the structure and evolution of amorphous dense phases.

Abraham Lenhoff is the Allan P. Colburn Professor and Chair of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware, where he has been on the faculty since 1984. He earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of Cape Town and Master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin, all in chemical engineering. Lenhoff has earned the ACS Award in Separations Science and Technology, the Alan S. Michaels Award in the Recovery of Biological Products, and the Marvin J. Johnson Award in Microbial and Biochemical Technology. His research is primarily on application of principles of thermodynamics, transport phenomena, biophysics and colloid science to protein separations and phase behavior, especially chromatography and crystallization. Three of the five members of his UW thesis committee, including Ed Lightfoot, were awarded the National Medal of Science. Before arriving in Madison as a grad student, Lenhoff had only seen snow twice in his life.