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Neal Woodbury, PhD

Deputy Director

The Biodesign Institute, Office of the Director

Professor

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Bio

Visit Dr. Woodbury's website.

Neal Woodbury, PhD, leads a team that seeks to develop molecular devices and nanoscale hybrid electronics for use in biomedicine, environmental remediation and monitoring, threat detection and agriculture. His research into the structure/function relationships in photosynthesis led him to realize the awesome potential of harnessing the energy of light to direct chemical reactions.

Looking at the diversity of nature, Dr. Woodbury clearly sees that there must be a molecular formula in the form of a heteropolymer sequence that has almost any desired function or property - a molecular cure for disease, a sensor for a toxin, and a complex molecular matrix for computing or display. One must simply use the right basis set of chemical monomers and search the sequence space until an answer is found. His efforts have been directed at building synthetic systems that can do this: speed up natural evolution.

Dr. Woodbury is an advocate of interdisciplinary science as a means of providing researchers greater vision in addressing real-world problems. Dr. Woodbury's body of published work includes more than 75 published articles and studies. He had been a member of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Biophysics Panel for the past year; a current member of the NSF IGERT Panel; and an associate editor of Photochemistry and Photobiology. He has served as the Director of the Photosynthesis Center at ASU and is an active member of the American Chemical Society, Biophysical Society and American Photobiology Society.

Dr. Woodbury received his B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Davis and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington.

Selected Publications

2007

  • Woodbury, Neal Walter. Sequence-Dependent Variations Associated with H2A/H2B Depletion of Nucleosomes. Biophysical Journal (2007).
  • Woodbury, Neal Walter, Katilius, Evaldas, Flores, Carole. Exploring the Sequence Space of a DNA Aptamer Using Microarrays. Nucleic Acids Research (2007).
  • Woodbury, Neal Walter, Kelbauskas, Laimonas, Bash, Ralph, Yodh, J., Lohr, Dennis, Woodbury, Neal. Sequence-Dependent Nucleosome Structure and Stability Variations Detected by Forster Resonance Energy Transfer. Biochemistry (2007).
  • Woodbury, Neal Walter, Wang, Haiyu , Williams, JoAnn C., Blankert, Sean A., Laser, Christa, Woodbury, Neal W., Allen, James P.. Protein Dynamics Control the Kinetics of Initial Electron Transfer in Photosynthesis. Science (2007).

2006

  • Katilius, E, Katiliene, Z, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Singlaling aptamers created using fluorescent nucleotide analogs. Analytical Chemistry (2006).
  • katilius, E, Katiliene, Z, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Signaling Aptamers Created Using Fluorescent Nucleotide Analogs. Analytical Chemistry (2006).
  • katilius, E, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Multi-photon Excitation of Flourescent DNA Base Analogs. J.Biomed.Opt (2006).
  • Katilius, E, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Multi-photon exitation of fluorescent DNA base analogs. J.Biomed.Opt (2006).
  • Lin, S, Katilius, E, IIagan, R P, Gibson, G N, Frank, H A, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Mechanism of Cartenoid Singlet Excited State Energy Transfer in Modified Bacterial Reation Centers. J.Phys.Chem.B (2006).
  • Lin, S, Katilius, E, Ilagan, R P, Gibson, G N, Frank, H A, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Mechanism of carotenoid singlet excited state energy transfer in modified bacterial reaction centers. J. Phys. Chem. B (2006).
  • Northen, T, Brune, D, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Synthesis and Characterization of peptide Grafted Porous Polymer Microstructures. Biomacromolecules (2006).
  • Northen, T, Brune, D, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Synthesis and Characterization of Peptide Grafted Porous Polymer Microstructures. Biomacromolecules (2006).
  • Wang, H, Lin, S, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Electronic Transitions od the Soret Band of Reaction Centers from Rhodobacter Sphaeroides Studied by Femtosecond Transient Absorbance Spectroscopy. J.Phys.Chem B (2006).
  • Wang, H, Lin, S, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Electronic Transitions of the Soret Band of Reaction Centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides Studied by Femtosecond Transient Absorbance Spectroscopy. J. Phys. Chem B (2006).
  • Woodbury, Neal Walter. GA$: A HORIZON Miniseries. Video (2006).

2005

  • Haffa, A L M, Lin, S, LoBrutto, R, Williams, J A C, Taguchi, A K W, Allen, J P, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Environmental Control of Primary Photochemistry in a Mutant Bacterial Reaction Center. Journal of Physical Chemistry B (2005).
  • LoVullo, D, Daniel, D C, Yodh, J, Lohr, Dennis Evan, Woodbury, Neal Walter. A Fluorescence resonance energy transfer-based probe to monitor nucleosome structure. Analytical Biochemistry (2005).
  • Northen, T R, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Light-Directed Movement of Polymer Microstructures. Langmuir (2005).
  • Scruggs, A, Flores, C L, Wachter, Rebekka M, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Development and Characterization of Green Fluorescent Protein Mutants with Altered Lifetimes. Biochemistry (2005).

2004

  • Bowen, B, Scruggs, A, Enderlein, J, Sauer, M, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Implementation of neural networks for the identification of single-molecules. J. Phys. Chem. A (2004).
  • Haffa, A LM, Lin, Su, Williams, J C, Bowen, B P, Taguchi, A KW, Allen, J P, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Controlling the Pathway of Photosynthetic Charge Separation in Bacterial Reaction Centers. J. Phys. Chem. B (2004).
  • Katiliene, Z, Uyeda, G, Katilius, Evaldas, Williams, J C, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Increasing the rate of energy transfer between the LHI antenna and the reaction center in the photosynthetic bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides. J. Phys. Chem. B (2004).
  • Katilius, E, Babendure, J L, Lin, S, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Electron Transfer Dynamics in Rhodobacter sphaeroides Reaction Center Mutants with a Modified Ligand for the Monomer Bacteriochlorophyll on the Active Side. Photosynth. Res (2004).
  • Katilius, E, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Purple bacteria: Electron Acceptors and Donors. Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry (2004).
  • Katilius, E, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Multi-Photon Excitation Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy of Fluorescent DNA Base Analogs. Proc. of SPIE (2004).
  • Katilius, E, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Purple bacteria: Electron Acceptors and Donors. Encyclopedia of Biological Chemistry (2004).
  • Sension, R J, Cole, A G, Harris, A D, Fox, C C, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Lin, S, Marsh, E NG. Photolysis and Recombination of Adenosylcobalamin Bound to Glutamate Mutase. J. Phys. Chem. B (2004).

2003

  • Babendure, J, Liddell, P, Bash, R, LoVullo, D, Schiefer, T, Williams, M, Daniel, D, Thompson, M, Taguchi, A, Lohr, Dennis Evan, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Development of a Fluorescent Probe for the Study of Nucleosome Assembly and Dynamics. Analytical Biochemistry (2003).
  • Bowen, B, Enderlein, J, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Single-molecule Fluorescence Spectroscopy of TOTO on Poly-AT and Poly-GC DNA. Photochemistry and Photobiology (2003).
  • Bowen, B, Woodbury, Neal Walter. TOTO Binding Affinity Analysis Using Single-Molecule Fluorescence Spectroscopy. Photochemistry and Photobiology (2003).
  • Bowen, B, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Single-Molecule Fluorescent Lifetime and Anisotropy Measurements of the Red Fluorescent Protein, DsRed, in Solution. Photochemistry and Photobiology (2003).
  • Freiberg, A, Ratsep, M, Timpmann, K, Trinkunas, G, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Self-trapped excitons in LH2 antenna complexes between 5 K and ambient temperature. Journal of Physical Chemistry B (2003).
  • Gibasiewicz, K, Ramesh, V M, Lin, S, Redding, K, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Webber, A N. Excitonic interactions in wild-type and mutant PSI reaction centers. Biophys. J (2003).
  • Haffa, A LM, Lin, S, Williams, J C, Taguchi, A KW, Allen, J P, Woodbury, Neal Walter. High yield of long-lived B-side charge separation at room temperature in mutant bacterial reaction centers. Journal of Physical Chemistry B (2003).
  • Katiliene, Z, Katilius, E, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Single Molecule Detection of DNA Looping by NgoMIV Restriction Endonuclease. Biophysical Journal (2003).
  • Katiliene, Z, Katilius, E, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Energy Trapping and Detrapping in Reaction Center Mutants from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Biophysical Journal (2003).
  • Katilius, E, Bever, J, Katiliene, Z, Lin, S, Taguchi, A KW, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Manipulations of the B-Side Charge-Separated States Energetics in the Rhodobacter sphaeroides Reaction Center. Journal of Physical Chemistry (2003).
  • Lin, S, Katilius, E, Taguchi, A KW, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Excitation energy transfer from carotenoid to bacteriochlorophyll in the photosynthetic purple bacterial reaction center of Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Journal of Physical Chemistry (2003).
  • Montano, G, Bowen, B P, LaBelle, J T, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Pizziconi, V B, Blankenship, R E. Characterization of Chlorobium tepidum chlorosomes- A calculation of bacteriochlorophyll c per chlorosome and oligomer modeling. Biophysical Journal (2003).
  • Scruggs, A, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Optical Processing of Bacterial Libraries for Directed Evolution. Biotechnology and Bioengineering (2003).

2002

  • Daniel, D C, Thompson, M, Woodbury, Neal Walter. DNA-binding interactions and conformational fluctuations of Tc3 transposase DNA binding domain examined with single molecule fluorescence spectroscopy. Biophys. J (2002).
  • Gibasiewicz, K, Ramesh, V M, Lin, S, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Webber, A N. Excitation dynamics in eukaryotic pS I from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii CC 2696 at 10 K. Direct detection of the reaction center exciton states. J. Phys. Chem. B (2002).
  • Haffa, A LM, Lin, S, Katilius, E, Williams, J C, Taguchi, A KW, Allen, J P, Woodbury, Neal Walter. The dependence of the initial electron-transfer rate on driving force in Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction Centers. J. Phys. Chem. B (2002).
  • Katilius, E, Katiliene, Z, Lin, S, Taguchi, A KW, Woodbury, Neal Walter. B-side electron transfer in the HE(M182) reaction center mutant from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. J. Phys. Chem. B (2002).
  • Katilius, E, Katiliene, Z, Lin, S, Taguchi, A KW, Woodbury, Neal Walter. B side electron transfer in a Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction center mutant in which the B side monomer bacteriochlorophyll is replaced with bacteriopheophytin: Low-temperature study and energetics of charge-separated states. J. Phys. Chem. B (2002).
  • Yodh, J G, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Shlyakhtenko, L S, Lyubchenko, Y L, Lohr, Dennis Evan. Mapping nucleosome locations on the 208-12 by AFM provides clear evidence for cooperativity in array occupation. Biochemistry (2002).

2001

  • Bash, R C, Yodh, J, Lyubchenko, Y, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Lohr, D. Population analysis of subsaturated 172-12 nucleosomal arrays by atomic force microscopy detects nonrandom behavior that is favored by histone acetylation and short repeat length. J. Biol. Chem (2001).
  • Devanathan, S, Lin, S, Cusanovich, M A, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Tollin, G. Early photocycle kinetic behavior of the E46A and Y42F mutants of photoactive yellow protein: Femtosecond spectroscopy. Biophys. J (2001).
  • Gibasiewiez, K, Ramesh, V M, Melkozernov, A N, Lin, S, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Blankenship, R E, Webber, A N. Excitation dynamics in the core antenna of PSI from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii CC 2696 at room temperature. J. Phys. Chem. B (2001).
  • Lin, Su, Katilius, Evaldas, Haffa, A LM, Taguchi, A KW, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Blue light drives B-side electron transfer in bacterial photosynthetic reaction centers. Biochemistry (2001).
  • Thompson, M, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Thermodynamics of specific and nonspecific DNA binding by two DNA-binding domains conjugated to fluorescent probes. Biophys. J (2001).
  • Timpmann, K, Katiliene, Z, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Freiberg, A. Exciton self trapping in one-dimensional photosynthetic antennas. J. Phys. Chem. B (2001).
  • Williams, J C, Haffa, A LM, McCulley, J L, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Allen, James Paul. Electrostatic interactions between charged amino acid residues and the bacteriochlorophyll dimer in reaction centers from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Biochemistry (2001).

2000

  • Daniel, D C, Thompson, M, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Fluorescence intensity fluctuations of individual labeled DNA fragments and a DNA binding protein in solution at the single molecule level: A comparison of photobleaching, diffusion, and binding dynamics. J. Phys. Chem. B (2000).
  • Devanathan, S, Lin, S, Cusanovich, M A, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Tollin, G. Early intermediates in the photocycle of the Glu46Gln mutant of photoactive yellow protein: Femtosecond spectroscopy. Biophys. J (2000).
  • Eastman, J E, Taguchi, A KW, Lin, S, Jackson, J A, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Characterization of a Rhodobacter capsulatus reaction center mutant that enhances the distinction between spectral forms of the initial electron donor. Biochemistry (2000).
  • Thompson, M, Woodbury, Neal Walter. Fluorescent and photochemical properties of a single zinc finger conjugated to a fluorescent DNA-binding probe. Biochemistry (2000).
  • Timpmann, K, Woodbury, Neal Walter, Freiberg, A. Unraveling exciton relaxation and energy transfer in LH2 photosynthetic antennas. J. Phys. Chem. B (2000).