Students Home Current Students Recent Graduates 2001-2002 2000-2001 1999-2000 1998-1999 1997-1998 Selected Graduates from Previous Years Jack T. Surek jts@ddt.biochem.umn.edu University of St. Thomas Thomas Lab In the Thomas Lab graduate students have the opportunity to pursue a wide range of disciplines in order to study muscle proteins. These include electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, fluorescense spectroscopy, organic chemistry, computational chemistry, magnetic resonance simulation basec on molecular dynamics and analytical models as well as molecular biology. My focus is on mechanochemical transduction, particularly as it relates to phosphate release on the myosin head. I use primarily electron paramagnetic resonance at this point to study the myosin head in the actomyosin filament lattice using permeabilized muscle fibers. I am looking at new probes and new spin quenchers to facilitate these studies. We currently log the development of isometric force in these fiber bundles simultaneous with EPR. I plan to expand these studies to the slow isotonic/isovelocity regime using motor control. I also hope to measure phosphate evolution as single muscle fibers contract using a fluorescence technique.