Chris Fischer
- Associate Chair, Associate Professor, Director of Engineering Physics Program
Contact Info
Biography —
Professional Background
2010-present: Associate Professor, University of Kansas
2004-2010: Assistant Professor, University of Kansas
2002-2004: NIH Postdoctoral Fellow
2000-2002: Postdoctoral Research Associate
Research —
My general research interests include both the kinetics and the thermodynamics of protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions as well as the development and implementation of new biophysical methodologies and techniques for the study of these phenomena. The specific research focus of my group is trying to understand the interactions between the ISW2 enzyme, a member of the ISWI family of chromatin remodeling proteins, and eukaryotic DNA. We are developing a quantitative physical description of the mechanism by which this molecular motor utilizes the chemical potential energy it gains from ATP binding and hydrolysis to perform the mechanical work of regulating chromatin structure.
Selected Publications —
Shuja S. Malik, Evan Rich, Ramya Viswanathan, Bradley R. Cairns, and Christopher J. Fischer. Allosteric Interactions of DNA and Nucleotides with S. cerevisiae RSC. Biochemistry, 50 (2011):7881-90. PMID: 21834590.
Eric J. Tomko, Christopher J. Fischer, and Timothy M. Lohman. Ensemble methods for monitoring enzyme translocation along single stranded nucleic acids. Methods, 51 (2010):269-276. PMID: 20371288.
Ali R. Khaki, Cassandra Field, Shuja Malik, Anita Niedziela-Majka, Stephanie A. Leavitt, Ruth Wang, Magdeleine Hung, Roman Sakowicz, Katherine M. Brendza, and Christopher J. Fischer. The Macroscopic Rate of Nucleic Acid Translocation by Hepatitis C Virus Helicase NS3h Is Dependent on Both Sugar and Base Moieties. Journal of Molecular Biology, 400 (2010):354-378. PMID: 20451531.
Dennis L. Matlock, Laxmi Yeruva, Alicia K. Byrd, Samuel G. Mackintosh, Clint Langston, Carrie Brown, Craig E. Cameron, Christopher J. Fischer, and Kevin D. Raney. Investigation of translocation, DNA unwinding, and protein displacement by NS3h, the helicase domain from the Hepatitis C virus helicase. Biochemistry, 49 (2010):2097-2109. PMID: 20108974
Saroja K. Weeratunga, Scott Lovell, Huili Yao, Kevin P. Battaile, Christopher J. Fischer, Casey E. Gee, and Mario Rivera. Structural Studies of Bacterioferritin B from Pseudomonas aeruginosa Suggest a Gating Mechanism for Iron Uptake via the Ferroxidase Center. Biochemistry, 49 (2010):1160-1175. PMID: 20067302
Christopher J. Fischer, Lake Wooten, Eric J. Tomko and Timothy M. Lohman. Kinetics of Motor Protein Translocation on Single Stranded DNA, in Methods in Molecular Biology, Vol. 587, Mohamed M. Abdelhaleem, Editor, 2010, Springer: New York, NY. p. 45-56.
Christopher J. Fischer, Kazuhiro Yamada, and Daniel J. Fitzgerald. Kinetic Mechanism for Single stranded DNA binding and Translocation by S. cerevisiae Isw2. Biochemistry, 48 (2009): 2960-2968. PMID: 19203228
Christopher J. Fischer, Anjanabha Saha and Bradley R. Cairns. Kinetic Model for the ATP-dependent Translocation of S. cerevisiae RSC along Double-stranded DNA. Biochemistry, 46 (2007): 12416-12426. PMID: 17918861
Eric J. Tomko, Christopher J. Fischer, Anita Niedziela-Majka and Timothy M. Lohman, A Discontinuous Stepping Mechanism for E. coli UvrD Monomer Translocation along Single Stranded DNA. Molecular Cell, 2007: in press.
Katherine M. Brendza, Wei Cheng, Christopher J. Fischer, Marla A. Chesnik, Anita Niedziela-Majka, and Timothy M. Lohman. Auto-inhibition of E. coli Rep Monomer Helicase Activity by Its 2B Sub-domain. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102 (2005): 10076-10081
Christopher J. Fischer, Nasib K. Maluf and Timothy M. Lohman, Mechanism of ATP-Dependent Translocation of E. coli UvrD Monomers Along Single-Stranded DNA, Journal of Molecular Biology 344, 1287-1309 (2004)