Michael Baxa Staff Scientist
Michael Baxa
Staff Scientist at The University of Chicago
Ph.D., Physics, The University of Chicago, 2009
B.S. Western Illinois University, 2002
GCIS W107E
929 East 57th Street
Chicago, IL 60637 USA
baxa@uchicago.edu
(773)-834-0658
Research
His primary research focus is characterizing the biophysical principles that underlie protein dynamics in the context of both the protein folding pathway and native state dynamics as well using multiple experimental and computational methods, including hydrogen exchange mass spectrometry, rapid-mixing kinetics, small-angle x-ray scattering, NMR, and molecular dynamics. These studies include both soluble and membrane proteins as well as disordered proteins
Bio
University of Chicago, 2012-
Georgia Institute of Technology, Postdoctoral Fellow, 2010-2011
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2009
Papers from the Sosnick Group
A.M. Zmyslowski, M.C. Baxa, I.A. Gagnon, T.R. Sosnick, "HDX-MS performed on BtuB in E. coli outer membranes delineates the luminal domain’s allostery and unfolding upon B12 and TonB binding" Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 119 (2022).
X. Peng, M.C. Baxa, N.F. Faruk, J.R. Sachleben, S. Pintscher, I.A. Gagnon, S. Houliston, C.H. Arrowsmith, K.F. Freed, G.J. Rocklin, T.R. Sosnick, "Prediction and Validation of a Protein’s Free Energy Surface Using Hydrogen Exchange and (Importantly) Its Denaturant Dependence." J Chem Theory Comput, 18 (2022) 550-61.
M.C. Baxa, T.R. Sosnick, "Engineered Metal-Binding Sites to Probe Protein Folding Transition States: Psi Analysis." Muñoz V. (eds) Protein Folding. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2376. (2021) 31-63.
Z.P. Gates*, M.C. Baxa*, W. Yu, J.A. Riback, H. Li, B. Roux, S.B.H. Kent, T.R. Sosnick, "Perplexing cooperative folding and stability of a low-sequence complexity, polyproline 2 protein lacking a hydrophobic core" Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114 (2017) 2241-6.
***Recommended in F1000Prime***
W. Yu, M.C. Baxa, I. Gagnon, K.F. Freed, T.R. Sosnick, "Cooperative folding near the downhill limit determined with amino acid resolution by hydrogen exchange" Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 113 (2016) 4747-52.
M.C. Baxa, W. Yu, A.N. Adhikari, L. Ge, Z. Xia, R. Zhou, K.F. Freed, T.R. Sosnick, "Even with nonnative interactions, the updated folding transition states of the homologs Proteins G & L are extensive and similar" Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 112 (2015) 8302-7.
M.C. Baxa, E.J. Haddadian, J.M. Jumper, K.F. Freed, T.R. Sosnick, "Loss of conformational entropy in protein folding calculated using realistic ensembles and its implications for NMR-based calculations" Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111 (2014) 15396-401.
***Recommended in F1000Prime***
J.J. Skinner, W. Yu, E.K. Gichana, M.C. Baxa, J.R. Hinshaw, K.F. Freed, T.R. Sosnick, "Benchmarking all-atom simulations using hydrogen exchange" Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111 (2014) 15975-80.
M.C. Baxa, E.J. Haddadian, A.K. Jha, K.F. Freed, T.R. Sosnick, "Context and force field dependence of the loss of protein backbone entropy upon folding using realistic denatured and native state ensembles" J Am Chem Soc 134 (2012) 15929-36.
***Highlighted in a JACS spotlight***
A.T. Shandiz, M.C. Baxa, T.R. Sosnick, "A "Link-Psi" strategy using crosslinking indicates that the folding transition state of ubiquitin is not very malleable" Protein Sci 21 (2012) 819-27.
M.C. Baxa, K.F. Freed, T.R. Sosnick, "Psi-constrained simulations of protein folding transition states: implications for calculating φ" J Mol Biol 386 (2009) 920-8.
G.L. Bosco, M. Baxa, T.R. Sosnick, "Metal binding kinetics of bi-histidine sites used in psi analysis: evidence of high-energy protein folding intermediates" Biochemistry 48 (2009) 2950-9.
M.C. Baxa, K.F. Freed, T.R. Sosnick, "Quantifying the structural requirements of the folding transition state of protein A and other systems" J Mol Biol 381 (2008) 1362-81.