Martin Zanni

Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin

The Zanni research group has pioneered the application of two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy to membrane proteins. Using site-specific isotope labeling, they use 2D-IR spectroscopy to gain information on secondary structures and local electrostatic fields of individual molecular bonds, such as the carbonyl groups of protein backbones. Furthermore, they are experts on converting molecular dynamics simulations to 2D-IR spectra. Since 2D-IR spectroscopy operates on the picosecond timescale, direct comparison can be made between molecular dynamics structures and experiment.