Paul March

Chair of Science, Professor of Biochemistry
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania; B.Sc., Long Island University

Office: Department of Chemistry, Room M320
Phone: 617-975-9431
Email: marchpa@emmanuel.edu

My main global aim is to use disciplines within biology (microbiology, biochemistry, and molecular biology) to engage students in a process that leads to the development of critical inquiry skills. I remain cognizant of the fact that some learners have a keen interest in the specifics of the discipline and other learners may be filling an elective requirement for other majors. Some of the learners may have no intention of becoming scientists. I aim to use the discipline to provide an inclusive platform for all learners to become better critical thinkers.

During my research career as a biochemist/molecular biologist I have focused in two related areas of research. First, as a postdoctoral fellow with Masayori Inouye, I discovered that bacteria contain novel GTPases of unkown function. During 1985 and 1986, we named and described two of these, LepA and Era. More recently my laboratory has reported that these GTPases, along with a few others, are universally conserved in bacterial genomes. However the function of a number of these GTPases remains poorly defined. Current research in my laboratory is aimed at understanding how these proteins function.

The second area that I have contributed to has been a genetic analysis of the elongation stage of protein synthesis. In 1994 we reported a strategy to obtain informative temperature sensitive mutations in fusA, the Escherichia coli gene encoding elongation factor G. We employed these mutations in studies aimed at understanding how EF G catalyzes ribosome translocation. Our recent experiments show that it is possible to obtain informative intragenic suppressors of the ts growth defect. Our work on elongation factors has been carried out in collaboration with the laboratory of Al Dahlberg and that collaboration is continuing to grow.

Academic Positions

2007 - present
Professor of Biochemistry and Chair of Science
Emmanuel College :: Boston, MA

1994 - 2007
Senior Lecturer, School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences
The University of New South Wales :: Sydney, Austrailia

1988 - 1994
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School :: Piscataway, NJ

1991 - 1994
Member, Graduate Faculty
Rutgers University :: Piscataway, NJ

1988-1991
Associate Member, Graduate Faculty
Rutgers University :: Piscataway, NJ

1983 - 1987
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
State University of New York at Stony Brook :: Stony Brook, NY

Commercial Positions

1999-2008
Co-Founder and Chairman
Nucleics Pty. Ltd. :: Sydney and Bendigo, Austrailia

Awards & Fellowships

1988-1990
American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award

1986
National Institutes of Health Individual Research Award

1983 - 1985
American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship

Publications

Chiu, J., Tillett, D., Dawes, I.W., and March, P.E. (2008) Site-directed, ligase-independent Mutagenesis (SLIM) for highly efficient mutagenesis of plasmids greater than 8 kb. roteins: Journal of Microbiological Methods, in press.

Chiu, J., Tillett, D., and March, P.E. (2006) Mutation of Phe102 to Ser in the carboxyl terminal helix of E. coli thioredoxin affects the stability and processivity of T7 DNA polymerase. Proteins: Structure, Fucntion, and Bioinformatics, 64, 477-485.

Chiu, J., March, P.E., Lee, R., and Tillett, D. (2004). Site-directed, ligase-independent mutagenesis (SLIM): a single-tube methodology approaching 100% efficiency in 4 h. Nucleic Acids Research, 32, e174.

Cameron, D.M., Thompson, J., Gregory, S.T., March, P.E., and Dahlberg, A.E. (2004). Thiostrepton-resistant mutants of Thermus thermophilus. Nucleic Acids Research, 32, 3220-3227.

Cameron, D.M., Thompson, J., March, P.E., and Dahlberg, A.E (2002). Initiation factor IF2, thiostrepton and micrococcin prevent binding of elongation factor G to the Escherichia coli ribosome. J. Mol. Biol., 319, 27-35.

Caldon, C.E., Yoong, P. and March, P.E. (2001). Evolution of a molecular switch: universally conserved bacterial GTPases regulate ribosome function. Molecular Microbiology 41, 289-297.

Key Invited Presentations

2006 - Symposium Speaker, Australian Society for Microbiology Conference, Brisbane, Australia

2004 - Session Chair and Speaker; Australian Society for Microbiology Conference, Sydney, Australia

2002 - Organising Committee and Speaker, Triennial Ribosome Meeting, Queenstown, New Zealand