Saint Francis University

Research Interests

Mechanism of fluorescence quenching of tryptophan in proteins

Molecular Folding of conotoxins

Chemical Education

            See Pedro’s research webpage

Selected Recent Publications

28.  Pedro L. Muíño and Patrik Callis.  Solvent Effects on the Fluorescence Quenching of Tryptophan by Amides via Electron Transfer.  Experimental and Computational Studies.  J. Phys. Chem. B. 2009, 113, 2572-2577.

27. Patrik R. Callis, Alexander Petrenko, Pedro L. Muíño, Ramón Tusell.  Ab Initio Prediction of Tryptophan Fluorescence Quenching by Protein Electric Field-Enabled Electron Transfer.  J. Phys. Chem. B.  2007, 111, 10335-10339.

23. Khaled A. Khatib, Thomas J. Herald, and Pedro L. Muíño.  Application of fluorescence spectroscopy to characterize soybean varieties.  Int. J. Food Sci. Tech.  2005, 40, 545-555.

22. Pedro L. Muíño.  The OH^C + CH₃SH Reaction: Support for an Addition-Elimination Mechanism from Ab Initio Calculations.  J. Comp. Chem.  2005, 26, 612-618.

20. P. L. Muíño, A. M. Thompson, and R. J. Buenker.  Use of time-correlated single photon counting detection to measure the speed of light in water. Khim. Fiz. 2004, 23, 117-128.

Recent Presentations

22. Ab Initio Prediction of Electron Transfer Quenching of Tryptophan Fluorescence by Backbone Amides.  Pedro L. Muíño, Alexander Petrenko, Ramón Tusell, Patrik R. Callis. .  51^st Annual Meeting of the American Biophysical Society.  Baltimore, Maryland.  March 3-7, 2007.

21. Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics Simulations of the Fluorescence Quenching of H-Type Homodimers of Fluorescein and Tetramethyl Rhodamine.  Paul A. Johns, Patrik R. Callis, Pedro L. Muíño.  51^st Annual Meeting of the American Biophysical Society.  Baltimore, Maryland.  March 3-7, 2007.

20. A Molecular Dynamics + Electrostatics Model to Predict Tryptophan Fluorescence Quantum Yields in Proteins.  Pedro L. Muiño and Patrik R. Callis.  50^th Annual Meeting of the American Biophysical Society.  Salt Lake City, Utah.  February 18-22, 2006.

19. Experimental Evidence of the Quenching Mechanism of Tryptophan Fluorescence in Proteins. Pedro L. Muiño and Patrik R. Callis.  48^th Annual Meeting of the American Biophysical Society.  Baltimore, Maryland.  February 14-18, 2004.

Recent Invited Talks

16. Solving Global Warming.  Saint Francis University Connections program.  Loretto, PA.  March 28, 2007.

15. Molecular Modeling of Protein Fluorescence: getting information on protein shapes from light emission.  Saint Francis University.  Loretto, PA.  November 16, 2006.

14. Tryptophan as a Probe of Protein Structure.  Centro de Química-Física Molecular.  Instituto Superior Técnico.  Lisbon, Portugal.  May 30, 2005.

Affiliations

Alpha Chi Sigma, the Professional Chemistry Society

American Association for the Advancement of Science

American Biophysical Society

American Chemical Society

Phi Lambda Upsilon, the Honors Chemistry Society

Community Service

Program Reviewer (Chemistry-Sec. Ed.) for the Pennsylvania Department of Education

Member of the Education Committee of the Biophysical Society

Member of Penn-Mont Academy Board of Directors

Journal Reviewer

•  Journal of Physical Chemistry
•  Journal of Fluorescence
•  Journal of Chemical Education
•  The Chemical Educator
•  Structural Chemistry

Reviewer for the National Science Foundation