Contact info:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Physical Biosciences Division
One Cyclotron Road
Mailstop: Hildabrand Hall
Berkeley, California 94720
USA

Location: Building 11 - room 0225 
Phone: (510) 642-3038   
Email: INTinoco(at)lbl.gov

Research Emphasis
Biophysical Chemistry · Nucleic Acids · NMR Single Molecules -- Physical methods are used to determine the structures of nucleic acids and illuminate the biological functions they control.

The sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid determines its structure and function; Professor Tinoco and his students want to deduce these fundamental properties from the sequence. Important questions are: What folded, base paired structure of an RNA is specified by the sequence? How do RNA loops interact with each other, or with double stranded regions to form compact three dimensional structures? What proteins, drugs, and ions do these structures bind? How do the sequence and structure affect the functions of ribosomal RNA's, the sites of processing of RNA, the translation of messenger RNA's, the replication of RNA viruses, and the catalytic abilities of RNA enzymes?

The methods that are being used to answer these questions include:

1) Multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance measurements using proton, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus nuclei. The conformations and dynamics of nucleic acids can be thus determined.

2) Chemical and enzymatic probing of RNA, and photochemical cross linking of protein RNA complexes.

3) Absorption, circular dichroism and NMR studies of thermodynamics and kinetics of interactions of oligonucleotides with each other and with ions.

4) Single molecule measurements of the forces required to unfold RNA molecules using atomic force microscopes or laser tweezers.

Publications