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Margaret Daugherty, Ph.D.
Adjunct Faculty
mdaugher@middlebury.edu
O: Middlebury College L: Middlebury College
O: 802-443-5553 L: 802-443-5553

Background:
Dr. Daugherty obtained her Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. in 1994 where she investigated the role of the Bohr Effect in the molecular mechanism of cooperativity in hemoglobin. Her first postdoctoral position was with Terrence G. Oas at Duke University Medical School where she researched issues relating to the stability and folding rates of proteins. Her second postdoctoral position was with Michael G. Fried at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine where she became interested in the regulation of eukaryotic gene transcription. Other research projects at Penn State involved investigating the molecular basis of the protein-protein interactions involved in blood coagulation and investigating the role of osmolytes in protein stability. In June 2000, she joined the faculty in the Biochemistry department of the University of Vermont College of Medicine

 

Project Description:
Our laboratory is interested in understanding the physical and chemical mechanisms by which the eukaryotic transcription factor, TATA-binding protein (TBP), interacts with both the protein and DNA components of the transcription initiation machinery. In particular, we are interested in (1) understanding how TBP self-association influences its functional DNA and protein interactions and (2) understanding the thermodynamic, kinetic and chemical interactions of TBP with the components of the RNA polymerase I transcription initiation machinery. Our overall goal is to elucidate a molecular mechanism for the regulation of transcription in this eukaryotic system. Our approaches to investigating these issues include hydrodynamic techniques such as analytical ultracentrifugation, fluorescence spectroscopy, circular dichroism and the electrophoretic mobility shift assay.

 
Selected Publications:

Fried, M.G. and Daugherty, M.A., In Vitro Interaction of the Escherichia coli Cyclic AMP Receptor Protein with the Lactose Repressor, Journal of Biochemistry 276:11226-11229, (2001)

Daugherty, M.A.; Brenowitz, M.; & Fried, M.G., Participation of the Amino-Terminal Domain in the Self-Association of the Yeast TATA Binding Protein M.G. Biochemistry 39: 4869-4880, .(2000)

Daugherty, M.A., Brenowitz, M., & Fried, M.G. The TATA-Binding Protein from Saccharomyces Cerevisiae Oligomerizes in Solution at Micromolar Concentrations to Form Tetramers and Octamers. J. Mol. Biol. 28: 1389-1399, (1999)

Burton, R.E., Huang, G.S., Daugherty, M.A., Calderone, T.L., & Oas, T.G., The Energy Landscape of a Protein Mapped by Ala-Gly Substitutions. Nature Structural Biology 4: 305-310, (1997)

Daugherty, M.A., Shea, M.A., & Ackers, G.K., Assembly-linked Bohr Effects of the Partially-ligated Microstates in Human Hemoglobin. Biochemistry 33: 10345-10357, (1994)

All Daugherty publications