Daniel Coman, PhD

Postdoctoral Associate
Mentor: Fahmeed Hyder

Contact

Address:
Yale University, School of Medicine
Magnetic Resonance Research Center
TAC, N144, 300 Cedar Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8043
United States

Email: daniel.coman@yale.edu
Telephone: (203) 785-6170
Fax: (203) 785-6643

Education

PhD Biophysics (2005), Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459
Thesis title: Structural Energetics of DNA Double and Triple Helices and Their Interactions with Metal Ions.
Advisor: Professor Irina M. Russui

BS Theoretical Physics (1997), University of Bucharest, Romania
Thesis title: Adiabatic Theory and Gell-Mann Law.
Advisor: Professor Gheorghe Nenciu

Please click here for Curriculum Vitae

Research Interests

My research interests are focused on using MR Spectroscopy (1H, 19F, 13C, 31P) for several in vivo animal applications, such as measurement of physiological parameters or estimation of metabolic rates. Recently I developed a non-invasive method for measurements of temperature and pH in vivo. The method can be used to obtain temperature and pH maps of animal brain within several minutes. It was successfully applied to measure the effects of various physiological perturbations, such as those induced by the drug MDMA (ecstasy) or by pharyngeal brain cooling, on temperature and/or pH. Other recent projects involve the measurement of total brain metabolism by 19F spectroscopy using 2-fluoro-2deoxy-D-glucose (FDG), and the measurement of metabolic rates of glucose consumption in brain tumors.

Selected Publications

1. Daniel Coman, Hubert K. Trubel, Robert E. Rycyna, Fahmeed Hyder. Brain temperature and pH measured by 1H chemical shift imaging of a thulium agent. (NMR in Biomed., in press).
2. Natasja J.G. Maandag, Daniel Coman, Basavaraju G. Sanganahalli, Peter Herman, Arien J. Smith, Hal Blumenfeld, Robert G. Shulman, Fahmeed Hyder. Energetics of neuronal signaling and fMRI activity. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA., 2007, Dec 18; 104(51): 20546-20551.
3. Daniel Coman and Irina M. Russu. A Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Investigation of the Energetics of Base Pair Opening Pathways in DNA. Biophys J., 2005, 89(5):3285-3292.
4. Daniel Coman and Irina M. Russu. Base-pair opening in three DNA-unwinding elements. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2005, 280(21): 20216-20221.
5. Daniel Coman and Irina M. Russu. Site-resolved stabilization of a DNA triple helix by magnesium ions. Nucleic Acids Research, 2004, 32(3): 878-883.
6. Daniel Coman and Irina M. Russu. Probing hydrogen bonding in a DNA triple helix using protium-deuterium fractionation factors. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2003, 125(22): 6626-6627.
7. Daniel Coman and Irina M. Russu. Site-resolved energetics in DNA triple helices containing G.TA and T.CG triads. Biochemistry, 2002, 41(13): 4407-4414.

For a further list of Coman's publications, please see PubMed.