Bio:
PhD in Physics, University of Chicago, 1968 (thesis: Fast Photovoltages from Photoreceptors). Post doc, 1967-68, with Rod Clayton at Cornell (Photosynthesis of Bacteria) Assistant Professor, 1968-73, Columbia University, Dept of Biological Sciences Associate Prof--Prof, 1973-2000, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Depts of Physiology and Biophysics, and Cell and Structural Biology Research Professor, University of Washington, Dept of Biology, 2000-
Research Interests:
I work on light energy transduction by retinal proteins. The two major systems are thus visual pigments with their visual cascade, in which 11-cis retinal is the chromophore, and bacteriorhodopsin, in which all-trans retinal is the chromophore. Vision involves light sensing while photosynthesis involves light energy conversion. Most of the ways of converting light energy into chemical energy are in systems which use chlorophyll to absorb the light. Bacteriorhodopsin does this in a system using a retinal chromophore to absorb the light. Bacteriorhdopsin and its cousins are found in halobacteria, members of the Archaebacteria kingdom, and these species grow only in extremely saline water. We are trying to find out how the absorption of the light by the bacteriorhodopsin leads to the movement of protons across the halobacteria's cell membrane. I have started a collaboration with Rose Ann Cattolico's lab to study the pigments underlying phototaxis in algae.
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Selected Publications:
Ebrey, T. and Koutalos, Y. (2001) Vertebrate Photoreceptors, Prog. Retinal and Eye Res. 20, 49-94. Kuwata, O., C. Yuan, S. Misra, R. Govindjee, and T. G. Ebrey (2001) Kinetics and pH dependence of light-induced deprotonation of the Schiff base of rhodopsin: possible coupling to proton uptake and formation of the active form of Meta II. Biochemistry (Moscow) 66, 1283-1299 Balashov, W. and Ebrey, T. (2001) Trapping and spectroscopic identification of the photointermediates of bacteriorhodopsin at low temperature. Photochem. Photobiol. 73, 453-462. Ebrey, T.G. (2002) Commentary: A new type of photoreceptor in algae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 99, 8463-8464 Takahashi, Y. and Ebrey, T. (2003) Molecular basis of spectral tuning in the newt short wavelength sensitive visual pigment. Biochemistry, 42, 6025-6034 Maeda, A., Herzfeld, J., Belenky, M., Needleman, R., Gennis, R., Balashov, S., and Ebrey, T. (2003) Water-mediated hydrogen-bonded network on the cytoplasmic side of the Schiff base of the L intermediate of bacteriorhodopsin. Biochemistry 42, 1422-14129
Teaching Interests:
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