Austin E. Smith Department of Chemistry University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Chapel Hill, NC 27599 aes@email.unc.edu

Mailing Address: 256A Sweet Bay Place

Carrboro, NC 27510 (828) 773-6337

Education University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC

Ph.D. in Chemistry (expected 2015) Research Advisor: Dr. Gary J. Pielak

08/2010 - present

Furman University, Greenville, SC

M.S. in Chemistry Research Advisor: Dr. Karen L. Buchmueller

06/2009 - 08/2010

Furman University, Greenville, SC

B.S. in Chemistry, Magna cum Laude Cumulative GPA: 3.87

09/2005 - 05/2009

Publications

8. Smith AE, Zhou, Z, Pielak GJ. Hydrogen exchange of disordered proteins in Escherichia coli.

Protein Science, in press (2015). 7. Monteith WB, Cohen RD, Smith AE, Guzman-Cisneros E, Pielak GJ. Quinary structure

modulates protein stability in cells. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, in press (2015).

6. Smith AE, Zhang Z, Pielak GJ, Li C. NMR studies of protein folding and binding in cells and

cell-like environments. Current Opinion in Structural Biology, 30: 7-16 (2015). 5. Sarkar M, Smith AE, Pielak GJ. Impact of reconstituted cytosol on protein stability. Proceedings

of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110: 19342-19347 (2013).

4. Smith AE, Sarkar M, Young GB, Pielak GJ. Amide proton exchange of a dynamic loop in cell

extracts. Protein Science, 22: 1313-1319 (2013). 3. Benton LA, Smith AE, Young GB, Pielak GJ. Unexpected effects of macromolecular crowding

on protein stability. Biochemistry 51: 9773-9775 (2012). 2. Wang Y, Sarkar M, Smith AE, Krois AS, Pielak GJ. Macromolecular crowding and protein

stability. Journal of the American Chemical Society 134: 16614-16618 (2012).

1. Smith AE, Buchmueller KL. Molecular basis for the inhibition of HMGA1 proteins by distamycin A. Biochemistry 50: 8107-8116 (2011).

Honors

James Morton Alexander Graduate Award for outstanding performance in coursework and research,

2013 Phi Beta Kappa in recognition of high attainments in liberal scholarship, 2009 American Institute of Chemists Award in Biochemistry in recognition of achievement during the

2008/2009 academic year

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Research Presentations

5. The 28th Annual Symposium of the Protein Society, 2014. Poster: “Hydrogen exchange of disordered proteins in living cells.” Received “best poster award.”

4. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital National Graduate Student Symposium, 2014. Poster and talk: “Amide exchange of intrinsically disordered proteins in Escherichia coli.”

3. South Eastern Regional meeting of the American Chemical Society, 2009. Nucleic acids graduate session talk: “NMR and FRET characterization of the inhibition of the HMG A/T hook by distamycin.”

2. National meeting of the American Chemical Society, 2009. Poster: “NMR characterization of the inhibition of the HMG A/T hook by distamycin.”

1. South Eastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, 2008. “Monitoring competition via NMR”: Recognized by an award for undergraduate presentations.

Research Experience

Ph.D. Dissertation Research, UNC

Protein amide-hydrogen exchange in vitro and in living cells

Heteronuclear, high-resolution Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) o Pulse programming o Exchange spectroscopy o Native-state hydrogen-deuterium exchange

Effect of cell lysates on amide-hydrogen exchange rates

Quantifying intracellular pH of Escherichia coli

Hydrogen exchange of intrinsically disordered proteins in E. coli

Recombinant protein expression and purification

08/2010 - present

M.S. Thesis Research, Furman University

Molecular basis for inhibition of AT hook proteins by distamycin

Distamycin induced displacement of a protein bound to the minor groove of DNA

NMR of DNA:ligand complexes o 1D (1H, 31P), 2D 1H homonuclear

Fluorescence spectroscopy, including Förster resonance energy transfer and anisotropy

06/2009 - 08/2010

Undergraduate Research, Furman University

National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Fellow NMR studies of interactions between DNA and two minor groove binders, distamycin A and the AT hook of HMGA1.

01/2008 - 05/2009

Techniques/Skills

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance

Two- and three-dimensional protein heteronuclear NMR

Protein backbone and DNA base resonance assignment

Protein 15N relaxation including longitudinal, transverse, and constant-time Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill dispersion measurements

Native-state hydrogen-deuterium exchange

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Solvent exchange spectroscopy, SOLEXSY

Homonuclear nuclear Overhauser effect spectroscopy

Data processing with NMRPipe/NMRDraw, NMRViewJ

Varian/Agilent and Bruker spectrometers Bruker pulse programming

MATLAB Calorimetry

Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC)

Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) Flourescence

Förster resonance energy transfer Anisotropy

Molecular Biology

Site-directed mutagenesis

Polymerase chain reaction

Recombinant protein expression

FPLC (GE Akta) purification including ion exchange, affinity, and size-exclusion chromatography Work/Teaching Experiences UNC Biochemistry Lab Teaching Assistant

Molecular biology

Protein purification

Enzyme kinetics

09/2011 - 12/2011

Furman NMR Maintenance

Trained students in operation of NMR spectrometers

Cryogen fills

Non-axial shim updates, gradient maps, probe tuning

Troubleshooting

05/2009 - 08/2010

Furman University Chemistry Teaching Assistant

NMR lab for undergraduates

Winter 2008, Spring 2009

Furman University Chemistry Tutor Spring 2008 - Spring 2009

Mentoring

An undergraduate:

Summer/Fall 2013: Understanding the change in Escherichia coli interior pH in high density NMR cultures, and the location of recombinant α-synuclein in E. coli.

Spring 2014-present: Studying the stability and dynamics of the N-terminal SH3 domain of the drosophila protein drk under crowded conditions.

A post-bac

Summer 2014: Determining the affects of N-terminal acetylation on α-synucliein in E coli. Graduate rotation students:

Summer 2013: Monitored in-cell ligand binding with 19F NMR and dihydrofolate reductase.

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Spring 2013: Attempted optimization of Concensus Tricopeptide Repeat (CTRP) proteins. Taught protein expression and purification and basic NMR

Fall 2012: Expressed and purified CTPR proteins 2 and 3. Collected 2D 15N-1H correlation spectrum of CTPR2 and attempted in-cell NMR. Taught protein expression and purification and basic NMR

Understanding effects of polyethyleneglycolation (PEGylation) on ubiquitin:

Undergraduate researcher (Fall 2012): DSC analysis of PEGylation of ubiquitin up to 100:1 molar ratios

High school teacher (Summer 2012): DSC characterization of PEGylated ubiquitin

Graduate rotation student (Winter 2012): Ubiquitin pH optimization for DSC, 20:1 PEGylation, NMR native-state hydrogen exchange of PEGylated ubiquitin

Graduate rotation student (Fall 2011): Preliminary optimization of DSC instrument using lysozyme and ubiquitin

High school teacher (Summer 2011): SDS-PAGE analysis of PEGylated ubiquitin at different molar ratios reagent:protein