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INFORMATION FOR

    Caitlin Davis, PhD

    Assistant Professor
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    Contact Info

    c.davis@yale.edu

    Chemistry

    225 Prospect St., PO Box 208107

    New Haven, CT 06520-8107

    United States

    About

    Titles

    Assistant Professor

    Biography

    Caitlin obtained her Ph.D. with Prof. Brian Dyer at Emory University in 2015. During that time, she developed and applied structurally-specific time-resolved infrared techniques to probe fast protein dynamics in vitro. From 2015-2019, Caitlin was a Center for the Physics of Living Cells Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Martin Gruebele at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. As a postdoc, she developed an in vitro mimic of the intracellular environment on protein folding and stability, and also expanded the in-cell Fast Relaxation Imaging (FReI) technique to bimolecular reactions and whole organisms.

    In 2020, Caitlin started her own lab at Yale University, where she currently investigates the mechanism and dynamics of protein and RNA interactions inside cells. To achieve this goal, her group uses a combination of time-resolved infrared and fluorescence spectral imaging at multiple scales, from in vitro to single cell to whole organism. This quantitative biophysical approach is used to address kinetic questions that require characterization in the complex, heterogenous environment of the cell. This includes phase-separated bio-condensates, pre-mRNA splicing, and "quinary" RNA interactions.

    Appointments

    • Chemistry

      Assistant Professor
      Primary

    Other Departments & Organizations

    • Biochemistry, Quantitative Biology, Biophysics and Structural Biology (BQBS)
    • Center for RNA Science and Medicine
    • Chemistry
    • Yale Combined Program in the Biological and Biomedical Sciences (BBS)

    Education & Training

    Center for the Physics of Living Cells Postdoctoral Fellow
    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2019)
    PhD
    Emory University, Chemistry (2015)
    BS
    University of Michigan, Chemistry and Mathematics (2007)

    Research

    Overview

    Quantification of the physics and chemistry of biomolecule interactions inside cells is challenging due to the complex environment, fast timescales of motions, and difficulties in controlling reactions. The unifying theme of our research is the development of new quantitative spectroscopic imaging techniques to elucidate the relationship between function and dynamics of proteins and RNA inside living cells.

    Our research lies at the intersection of traditional chemistry, physics, and biology disciplines, with an emphasis on quantitative physical characterization of biological systems. Our efforts combine elements of physical chemistry (thermodynamics, kinetics, spectroscopy), molecular biology (mutation, proteins, RNA), cell biology (live-cell microscopy, mammalian cell culture, zebrafish model), and theoretical chemistry (simulations and modeling).

    Research at a Glance

    Yale Co-Authors

    Frequent collaborators of Caitlin Davis's published research.

    Publications

    2024

    See All Publications

    Get In Touch

    Contacts

    Email
    Mailing Addresses

    Chemistry

    225 Prospect St., PO Box 208107

    New Haven, CT 06520-8107

    United States

    Chemistry

    350 Edwards St.

    New Haven, CT 06511

    United States