Patricia Bernadette O'Hara

Amanda and Lisa Cross Professor of Chemistry

Dean of New Students

 Department of Chemistry, Amherst College
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002-5000
pbohara@amherst.edu    phone (413) 542-2732

EDUCATION 

  • 1976-1981  Columbia University Ph.D    Biophysical Chemistry
  • 1972-1976  Adelphi University    B.A.     Chemistry 

POSITIONS HELD

  • 2010-2013          Dean of New Students
  • 2008-2009         Senior Advisor to the Dean of Faculty, Amherst College
  • 2006-present     Amanda and Lisa Cross Professor of Chemistry
  • 2004-2005         Senior Sabbatical Fellowship, IECB, Bordeaux, France
  • 2002-2004         Thalheimer Professorship, Amherst College
  • 1995-2005          Professor of Chemistry, Amherst College
  • 1999-2002          Chemistry Department Chair
  • 1994-1997           Bruss Reader, Amherst College
  • 1997-1998           Visiting Scholar, UMass Amherst w. Craig Martin
  • 1993-1994           Visiting Scientist, Boston Biomedical Research Institute
  • 1989-1995           Associate Professor, Amherst College
  • 1987-1988           Visiting Professor, Penn. State University
  • 1983-1989           Assistant Professor, Amherst College
  • 1981-1983           Postdoctoral Research, Stanford University with S.G. Boxer
  • 1976-1983           Graduate Research at Columbia U. with R.A.Bersohn
  • 1974-1976           Undergraduate Research at Adelphi U. with S. Moon

 

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES AND MEMBERSHIP

ACS, AWIS, AAUP, AAAS, Biophysical Society, CRUI, Sigma Xi, Phi Beta Kappa; Advisory Board: U.Mass HHMI Grant to Molecular Chemistry and Biology  (2006-present)  Steering Committee, Preparation of Future Faculty program, UMASS, ACS (1999-2004)

REVIEWER

Grants for Beckman, NSF, NIH, Research Corp, PRF, CRUI; Research articles for JACS, J. Chem. Ed., J. Inorg. Chem, and others; Textbooks for ACS, Nat. Com. on Sci. Ed. Standards & Assessment; Program Reviewer:  Chem Dept: Holyoke Community College, Skidmore College

 
TEACHING

Chemistry Courses: Chemical Basis of Human Physiology, Molecular and Cellular Biophysics, Biochemistry, General Chemistry, Physical Chemistry, Organic Chemistry Laboratory

Interdisciplinary Courses:  Genomics First Year Seminar, Medical Risk Assessment, Women in Science, Evolution/Revolution First Year Seminar

Science Teacher Training Workshops: Interdisciplinary Course on Light, Molecular Visualization; Revisiting the Central Dogma of Biology from the perspective of Green Fluorescent Protein, Luminescence;

Interterm Courses: k-12 Out-Teach, Phoenix Program

  PUBLICATIONS (undergraduate student and secondary school teacher co-authors are underlined)

  1. Pauyo, T.,Hilinski, G. J., Chiu, P.T.,Hansen, D.E.,Choi, Y.C., Ratner, D.I., Shah-Mahoney, N.,Southern,C.A.,O’Hara,P.B.(2006) Mol. Imm. Vol 43/7 pp 812-821. Genetic and Physical Studies of Affinity Maturation in Related Antibodies.
  2. O’Hara, P.B., Engelson, C., and St. Peter, W. (2005) J. Chem. Educ.Turning on the Light: Lessons from Luminescence Also 82 1 (includes manuscript, five labs)
  3. O'Hara, P.B., Engelson, C. St. Peter, W., (2005) J. Chem. Educ. Activity:  82, p48A Turning on the Light
  4. Mohan, G. S., Chiu, P.T., Southern, C.A., O’Hara, P.B., (2004) J.Phys.Chem. A 108, 7871-7877 Steady State and Multifrequency Phase Fluorometry Studies of Binding Site Flexibility in Related Antibodies
  5. O’Hara, P.B., Howard, M.L.1., Sanborn, J.A., (1999) J. Chem. Educ.76 p1673-1677. GC/MS and Immunoassays of Pesticides in Drinking Water: A Project Based Approach to Introductory Chemistry
  6. O’Hara, P. B.  (1997) Calcium Binding Proteins, Celio editor, OxfordJ. Amer. Chem. Soc, 119, p8581. University Press 1996
  7. O’Hara, P.B., Rahman, M.A., Rowland, A., and Turjoman, A.J., (1995) Photochem. and Photobio. B Biology30 p15-21. Target Peptide Induced Changes in the Structure and Dynamics of Calmodulin as Probed by Frequency Domain Fluorometry of Bound Tb(III)
  8. O’Hara, P.B., Gorski, K.M., Rosen, M. (1988) Biophys. J. 53, 1007-1014. Thermal Profiles of Energy Transfer: Luminescent Probes of Protein Dynamics in Transferrin and Calmodulin
  9. O’Hara, P.B., Gorski, K.M. (1988) Anal. Chim. Acta. 205, 161.
    Luminescent Probes of Protein Dynamics: Preliminary Results of Thermal Profiles of Förster Energy Transfer in Proteins
  10. O’Hara, P.B. (1987) Photochem. Photobio. 46 1067.
  11. Invited Paper Lanthanide Ions as Luminescent Probes of Biomolecular Structure
  12. O’Hara, P.B. and Koenig, S. (1986) Biochemistry 25, 1445. ESR and Magnetic Relax. Studies of Gd(III) Complexes with Human Serum Transferrin
  13. O’Hara, P.B. (1985) J. Amer. Chem Soc. 107, 4365. (H. Siegel, ed)
    Review of Calcium and its Role in Biology Metal Ions in Biological Chem 17
  14. O’Hara, P.B. and Bersohn, R. (1982) Biochemistry 21, 5269.
    Resolution of the Two Metal Binding Sites of Human Serum Transferrin by Low Temperature Excitation of Bound Eu(III)
  15. Sommer, J.H., O'Hara, P.B., Jonah, C., Bersohn, R. (1982) Biochem. Biophys. Acta 703, 62. Relative Reducibilities of Complexes of Fe(III), Co(III), Mn(III), and Cu(II) with Apotransferrin Using Solvated Electrons and CO2-
  16. O'Hara, P.B., Yeh, S.M., Meares, C.F., and Bersohn, R. (1981) Biochemistry 20, 4704. The Intersite Distance in Transferrin as Measured by Energy Transfer From Tb(III) to Mn(III) or Fe(III)
  17. O'Hara, P.B. (1981) PhD Thesis, Columbia University, N.Y., N.Y. The Binding Sites of Transferrin: Spectroscopic and Magnetic Studies of Lanthanide and Transition Metal Complexes

 

WORKING MANUSCRIPTS

O’Hara, P.B., Mabuchi, Y.,Macek, V. Grabarek, Z. to be submitted to Biophysical J.  Target Induced Modulation of Calmodulin Structure; Resonance Energy Transfer Studies

O’Hara, P.B. and Sanborn, J.A., Pesticides in Herbal Supplements and Herbal Extracts: A Community Based Project in Introductory Chemistry

Sengupta, D., Moore, J.S., Tew, G.N, O’Hara, P.B., Simple Method For Determining The Conformation Of Meta Phenylene Ethynylene In Solution Using Fluorescence Anisotropy (for submission to J. Polymer Chem A.)

Sengupta, D., Blatchly, R.A.,Tew, G.N, O’Hara, P.B., Theoretical and Spectroscopic Analysis of ortho Phenylene Ethynylene Polymers (for submission to J. Polymer Chem A.)

BOOK MANUSCRIPT

A Field Guide to the Use of Fluorescence Spectroscopy in the Biochemical and Biophysical Laboratory  (under contract to Elsevier)

  PUBLISHED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  1. Sullivan, Chantae; Briseno, Angelica; O'Hara, Patricia B.  Biophys. J. (2007) (977-Pos/B34) Probing the Evolution of Antibody Binding Affinity with Fluorescence Spectroscopy  
  2. O’Hara, P.B., Mohan, G.S. Pauyo, T., Dolan, B.M., Southern, C.A.(2004) Biophys. J. 84
    Fluorescent Hapten Analogue Sheds Light on the Relative Affinity and Flexibility of Antibody Binding Sites
  3.  O’Hara, P.B., Southern, C.A, Pauyo, T., Hilinski, G. (2003) Biophys. J. 83, 453A
    Probing Structural Annealing in the Binding Site of Mature Antibodies by Fluorescence Spectroscopy
  4. O’Hara, P.B., Chiu,P.T. (2002) Biophys. J. 82 312a
    Evolution of Antibody Flexibility As Probed by Multifrequency Phase Fluorometry
  5. O’Hara, P.B., Blatchly, R.A., Eisenberg, P.L, (2001) Conf. Proc. Pathways to Change Partners in Chime: Models of Molecular Structure
  6. O’Hara, P.B., Smith, G.B.,  Chung, J.S. (2000) Biophys. J. 78, 297A
    Evidence for T7 RNA polymerase Induced Perturbations in the Structure of Promoter DNA from Fluorescence Energy Transfer
  7. Johnson, C.K.  Sun, H-Y, Squire, T., Osborne, K.D, O’Hara, P.B., Xie, X.S. (2000) Biophys. J. 78, 386A Detection of Single Molecule Binding of Calmodulin to the Plasma Membrane Calcium ATPase and Target Peptides
  8. O’Hara, P.B., Smith, G.B., Chang, E. (1999) Biophys. J. 76, A478 Dynamic Changes in DNA Induced by Binding of Polymerase to Fluorescently Labeled DNA
  9. Rotberg,A. V., O’Hara, P.B., Dosemeci, A., Albers, R.W. (1998) Biophys. J. 74, A379 Calmodulin Trapping and Autophosphorylation in Calcium/Camodulin Dependent Protein KinaseII
  10. O’Hara, P.B.,  Barczak, A. , Kim, P.,  (1997) Biophys. J. 72  A87Characterization of Calmodulin Binding to Nitric Oxide Synthase by Fluorescence Energy Transfer
  11. O'Hara, P.B., Rahman, M.A., Chandani, A. and Lee, M.J.,  (1995) Biophys. J. 68   A194
    Fluorescence Studies of Calmodulin Complexes with Target Proteins and Peptides
  12. O'Hara, P.B., Grabarek, Z., Mabuchi, Y., Macek, V.J., Pianka, G.A., Hallert, G.E. (1994) Biophys. J. 66 A58.
    Structure and Flexibility of Calmodulin and its Complexes with Target Proteins
  13. O'Hara, P.B., Rahman, M.A., Rowland, A., Turjoman, A.J., 20th Int’l Conf. on Rare Earth Metals, 9/93
  14. O'Hara, P.B., Gorski, K. M., (1986) Fed. Proc. 45,(6) 1601.  ASBC meeting - Washington, D.C.
  15. O'Hara, P.B., Gorski, K. M., (1987) 5th Conversation in the Discipline of Biomolecular Stereodynamics. N.Y