Dr. Paul Dalhaimer
Assistant Professor
Post-doctoral Fellow, Yale University: Gene targeting and purification of Arp2/3 complex in fission yeast; Molecular dynamics simulations of actin and Arp2/3 complex; Reconstitution of actin branches at an interface.
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania: Physical characterization of worm-like micelles and their application as drug delivery vehicles in culture with lung carcinoma cell lines and live animal models; Monte-Carlo simulations of erythrocyte and other hair cell cytoskeletons.
Brief Bio
Paul Dalhaimer was educated in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania (B.S. and Ph.D.) and was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Cellular, Developmental, and Molecular Biology at Yale University where he was a recipient of a Ruth Kirschstein NRSA fellowship. He joined the faculty of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Tennessee in August of 2009. He has used computational techniques to study the actin cytoskeleton and semi-flexible polymers in general. Being interested in polymers, he has also developed (with co-workers) a drug delivery system that emulates the properties of filamentous phages and viruses. When loaded with the microtubule-binding drug taxol, the resulting carriers have been shown to shrink the size of tumors in mouse models. His laboratory is currently attempting to (1) discover new drugs or combinations thereof that interfere with cytoskeletal genes involved in cancer proliferation and to (2) target the drugs only to tumors using the delivery vehicles mentioned above.
Research Areas
» Biochemistry and biophysics of cytoskeletal proteins
» Fission yeast S. pombe as a model genetic system
» Statistical mechanics and computation
Selected Awards and Honors
2005-2008 Ruth Kirschstein NRSA Postdoctoral-Fellow
Selected Publications († equal contributors)
Nucleotide-mediated conformational changes of monomeric actin and Arp3 studied by molecular dynamics simulations. P. Dalhaimer†, T.D. Pollard, B.J. Nolen†. J. Mol. Biol. 376,166-183 (2008).
Crosslinked actin networks exhibit liquid crystal elastomer behavior, including soft mode elasticity. P. Dalhaimer, D.E. Discher, & T.C. Lubensky. Nature Physics 3,354-360 (2007).
Shape effects of filaments versus spherical particles in flow and drug delivery. Y. Geng†, P. Dalhaimer†, S. Cai, R. Tsai, M. Tewari, T. Minko, & D.E. Discher. Nature Nanotechnology 2,249-255 (2007).
Targeted worm micelles. P. Dalhaimer, A.J. Engler, R. Parthasarathy, F.S. Bates, & D.E. Discher. Biomacromolecules 5,1714-1719 (2004).
Single molecule visualization of stiffness-tunable, flow-conforming worm micelles. P. Dalhaimer, F.S. Bates, & D.E. Discher. Macromolecules 36,6873-6877 (2003).
Selected Patents
Block copolymer worm micelles for drug delivery and imaging; D.E. Discher, Y. Geng, S. Cai, and P. Dalhaimer; U.S. Patent Pending 10/913,660
Contact Dr. Dalhaimer
436 Dougherty Engineering Bldg.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, TN 37996-2200
Tel: (865) 974-5317
Email: pdalhaim@utk.edu
Group Web Site: Dalhaimer Lab