UNC chemist and distinguished professor Gary Pielak has been selected as the recipient of the 2016 Carl Brändén Award. Sponsored by Rigaku Corporation, the award is given to an outstanding protein scientist who has also made exceptional contributions in the areas of education and/or service to the science.
Pielak has advanced the field of protein chemistry through pioneering research in unraveling protein biophysics in living cells. He and his students have developed innovative quantitative techniques to measure protein stability and diffusion in crowded samples that interfere with standard measurement techniques. He has also made major advances in elucidating how the intracellular environment impacts both globular and intrinsically disordered proteins in surprising ways. Pielak has revolutionized our understanding of how proteins work where they actually function, inside cells, and not in the artificial environment of the test tube.
