Structure: RNA

BIOGRAPHY

EDUCATION-A.B. ''67, Harvard College; Ph.D. ''72, Columbia University; Postdoc ''73-''74, University of California, Berkeley; Professor of Chemistry and of Pediatrics, University of Rochester

RESEARCH INTERESTS- The research in Professor Turner's group focuses on the forces directing nucleic acid chemistry, with particular emphasis on RNA folding. This chemistry is important for life and for design of therapeutics. Nevertheless, much of it is not well understood. Studies of the properties of short oligonucleotides and related computational studies provide insight into the interactions determining the sequence dependence of the structures, energetics, and dynamics of nucleic acids.

MEMBERSHIPS/AWARDS: Doug has also served the scientific community by often teaching the first year undergraduate Chemistry course and the graduate biophysical chemistry course, by being a member of several NIH Study Sections, the Advisory Board of the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry in Poznan, and the editorial board of the Biophysical Journal. He also co-chaired a Nucleic Acids Gordon Conference. Doug has been unusually lucky with his own academic family of 9 postdocs, 32 students who have graduated with Ph.D.'s, and his other collaborators. Together, they have discovered many of the fundamental principles that determine RNA structure. This has helped advance methods for predicting RNA structure from sequence so that the methods are widely used by biochemists and biologists. Papers published by the group since 1983 have been cited over 6,000 times. The work has also been recognized by Sloan and Guggenheim Fellowships, election as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, continuous funding of an NIH grant that started in 1976, and coauthorship of more than 180 papers

OTHER INTERESTS- Doug Turner grew up in Brooklyn, where he claimed, "As a stickball player I developed the best curveball and screwball on my block".