Elizabeth Oakes

Elizabeth S. Courtenay Oakes is an instructor in chemistry laboratory with a predominantly biochemical background. She earned a B. A. in physics from Bryn Mawr College in 1993 and then started graduate school in the bacteriology department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1995, after exploring her scientific interests through broader coursework. She worked under the guidance of M. Thomas Record, Jr., focusing her research on the biophysical basis for cellular adaptation to osmotic stress. Her thesis included both empirical and theoretical work describing the thermodynamics of interactions between protein surface and small molecules that bacteria (and other cells) use to adapt to osmotic changes in their environment (osmolytes). She received her Ph.D. in 2000 and went on to pursue postdoctoral work in the biology department at M.I.T., in the laboratory of Dr. Tania Baker. At M.I.T., she studied energy-dependent intracellular proteases that are used by bacteria to degrade protein 'garbage' and also to provide temporal control of regulatory proteins involved in bacterial response to stress. Her studies used proteomic methods to compare substrate selection under optimal growth conditions to that after induction of an environmental stress (e.g. DNA damage, oxidation, or osmotic shock).

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Profile last updated: 09/07

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