Solomon Walter Englander

Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics and former Jacob Gershon-Cohen Professor of Medical Science; and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Englander is known for his comprehensive development of the field of hydrogen exchange (HX) studies. His group developed leading methods for HX measurement, accurately calibrated all aspects of protein and nucleic acid HX chemistry, and decisively settled the fundamental bases for HX interpretation in terms of H-bonded structure, detailed structural dynamics, and energetics. He used HX to explain a large number of biomolecular problems including nucleic acid and protein “breathing” reactions and site-resolved energy transfer and utilization. He discovered protein “foldons” and demonstrated their fundamental role in stepwise sequential protein folding pathways. Recent work disassembles the structure-energy cycle for ATP-driven biomolecule unfolding by the superfamily of AAA+ proteins.