logo: Karen Magnus image: Hemocyanin

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Photo: Karen Magnus

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Data

Born

December 10, 1952 in Pasadena, California.

Contact Information

Education

B.S., University of California at Davis

Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, 1980

Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Chicago, 1980-1981

Postdoctoral Fellow, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 1981-1985

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Professional Appointments

Research Associate, Department of Biophysics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 1985- 1989.

Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 1989-1998.

Instructor in Physiology, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 1989.

Guest Assistant Biophysicist, Biology Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, 1991-1993.

Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 1994-1999.

Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 1998-1999.

Research Scientist, Duke University Marine Laboratory, Nicholas School of the Environment, 1999-

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Past and Present Research Support

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Honors and Awards

Individual National Research Service Award GM07985, Karen A. Magnus, Research Fellow, (Paul B. Sigler and Eaton E. Lattman, sponsors). 1980-1983.

Minority Research Initiation Award NSF DMB90-04561, Karen A. Magnus, P.I. 1990-1993.

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Bibliography

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Teaching Activities

Undergraduate Courses

Physical Properties of Macromolecules (Lectures on x-ray crystallography, structures and functions of proteins and nucleic acids, prediction of protein structures, folding and dynamics.)

Enzymes (Lectures on structural mechanisms and regulation, kinases, NMR principles, metalloenzymes and serine proteases.)

Undergraduate Biochemistry Seminar (Discussion of original literature on macromolecular structure, sickle cell anemia, respiratory physiology, vision and color blindness, yeast genetics, information technology, the double helix structure, protein synthesis.)

Environmental Biochemistry (Ribosomal structure and functions.), (Three dimensional structures, data bases and software.)

Graduate Courses

Enzymes (Demonstration of molecular graphics.)

Cell Biology/Molecular Biology (Section Leader. Lectures on protein structure, protein folding, mechanisms of inhibition and drug design, kinetics and thermodynamics.)

Chemistry and Properties of Proteins (Lectures on x-ray diffraction, protein structure, mass spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance, mechanisms of protein folding.)

Structure and Function of RNA (Lectures on RNA structures, x-ray diffraction, discussions of the current RNA literature.)

Graduate Students

Hoa Ton-That, Ph.D. January, 1994. Thesis title: "The X-ray Crystal Structure of Subunit II Hemocyanin from the Limulus polyphemus in the Oxygenated State".

Peter d'U. Proctor, Ph.D. June, 1998. Thesis title: "Crystallographic Studies of Transport Proteins and Ligands."

Alvin Changco M.S. June, 1999. Structural studies of the L1 cell adhesion molecule with Dr. Vance Lemmon (Neurosciences).

Dejan Zivkovic, M.S. August, 1998. "Molecular biology and sequences of the subunits of Limulus hemocyanin" with Dr. David Samols (Biochemistry).

Postdoctoral Fellows

Diane Peapus, Ph.D., 1994-5. Crystallization trials on cartilage link protein with Dr. Thomas Hering (Medicine). Crystal structure of a niobium propeller compound with Dr. Paul Challen gohn Carroll University).

Shenping Liu, Ph.D., 1994-7. Crystal structure of profilin I. Crystal structures of fluoro-, azido, hydroxo- and nitrosyl forms of Limulus II hemocyanin.

Other Teaching

1989 Instructor at Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Physiology: Cell and Molecular Biology. Average 6 students for 20 days of 14 hours each.

1993 Instructor at University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. NSF Inorganic Biochemistry Summer Workshop. 50 students for 4 days.

1995 Instructor of Horizons on Biomedical Science (Health Careers Enhancement for.Minorities) CWRU.

1996 Instructor of Horizons on Biomedical Science (Health Careers Enhancement for Minorities) CWRU.

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Invited Research Presentations

Professional Meetings

1977American Crystallographic Association, Summer Meeting. East Lansing, Michigan.
1979Comparative Study and Recent Knowledge on Quaternary Structure and Active Sites of Oxygen Carriers and Related Proteins. Tours, France.
1982EMBO Workshop: Structure and Function of Invertebrate Respiratory Proteins. Leeds, U.K.
1984Gordon Research Conference on Diffraction Methods in Molecular Biology. Andover, New Hampshire.
1988Biophysical Society. Phoenix, Arizona.
1989Biophysical Society. Cincinnati, Ohio.
1990American Crystallographic Association, Annual Meeting. Seattle, Washington.
1991Fifth International Conference on Bioinorganic Chemistry. Oxford, U.K. American Crystallographic Association, Annual Meeting. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1992International Congress on Invertebrate Dioxygen Carriers. Lunteren, The Netherlands.
Copper Coordination Chemistry: Bioinorganic Perspectives. Baltimore, Maryland.
1993International Union of Crystallography, XVI Congress and General Assembly. Beijing, P.R.C.
1994Gordon Research Conference on Oxygen Binding Proteins. Plyrnouth, New Hampshire.
1995American Chemical Society, 27th Central Regional Meeting. Akron, Ohio.
1996The 55th Annual Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference. Athens, Georgia. (Keynote speaker).
199828th Mid-Atlantic Protein Crystallography Workshop. Baltimore, Maryland.
American Crystallographic Association, Annual Meeting. Arlington, Virginia.
2000XIIth International Congress on Invertebrate Dioxygen Binding Proteins. Roscoff, France.

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Seminars

1982University of Virginia, Department of Biology.
1983Vanderbilt University, Department of Molecular Biology.
1987University of North Carolina, Department of Biochemistry.
University of Miami, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Department of Biochemistry.
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, School of Life Sciences.
1988Kansas State University, Department of Biochemistry.
Washington State University, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.
1989University of Cincinnati, Department of Pharmacology.
Marine Biological Laboratory. Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
1990The College of Wooster, Department of Chemistry.
1991Georgia Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry.
McMaster University, Department of Biochemistry.
1993Oregon Graduate Institute, Department of Chemistry and Biological Sciences.
Oregon State University, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.
Kent State University, Department of Chemistry.
1994Youngstown State University, Department of Chemistry.
1995Kenyon College, Department of Chemistry.
The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Department of Molecular Cardiology.
Wilberforce University, Department of Chemistry.
1997Ohio Weslyan University, Department of Chemistry.
1998Smith College, Department of Chemistry.
1999University of New Orleans, Department of Chemistry.
Lousiana State University, College of Basic Sciences
2001University of Saskatchewan, Department of Chemistry

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Membership in Professional Societies

American Crystallographic Association
International Union of Crystallography
Biophysical Society
The American Society for Cell Biology
The Protein Society
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science

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Cover Illustrations Based on My Research

Magnus, K.A., Ton-That, H. and Carpenter, J.E. (1994) Chem. Rev. 94: 727-735.

Hazes, B., Magnus, K.A., Bonaventura, C., Bonaventura, J., Dauter, Z. Kalk, K. and Hol, W.G.J. (1993) Protein Science 2: 579-619.

Decker, H. and Terwilliger, N. (2000) J. Exptl. Biol. 203: 1777-1782.

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Ad hoc Reviewer For:

The National Science Foundation, The Ohio Supercomputer Center, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Proteins: Structure, Function, and Genetics, Cell Calcium, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Comitato per le Scienze Fisiche, Journal of Molecular Biology, Nature Structural Biology, Journal of Structural Biology, Acta Crystallographica, Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics.

Advisor to:

Vakgroep Organische en Anorganische Chemie of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry Division.

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