Tatyana Polenova is a Professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the

Journal of Magnetic Resonance The ''Journal of Magnetic Resonance'' (JMR) is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original research in the field of magnetic resonance, including nuclear magnetic resonance, electron paramagnetic resonance, magnetic resonance ...

since 2021. Her research interest involves using

solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance Solid-state NMR (ssNMR) spectroscopy is a technique for characterizing atomic level structure in solid materials e.g. powders, single crystals and amorphous samples and tissues using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. The anisotropic pa ...

, combined with computational and other biophysical methods, to understand the structure, dynamics, and function of complex

macromolecular assemblies The term macromolecular assembly (MA) refers to massive chemical structures such as viruses and non-biologic nanoparticles, cellular organelles and membranes and ribosomes, etc. that are complex mixtures of polypeptide, polynucleotide, polysaccha ...

, both biological and inorganic.

Education and career

Polenova obtained her B.S. at the

Lomonosov Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in 1992. She obtained her Ph.D. at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1997 and continued her postdoctoral research with Ann McDermott. She was appointed to Assistant Professor at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...

of the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...

in 1999, and moved to the University of Delaware in 2003, where she achieved full Professor in 2011. She is the Director of the

NIH The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

- COBRE "Molecular Design of Advanced Biomaterials" since 2014.

Research

Polenova uses

nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, most commonly known as NMR spectroscopy or magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), is a spectroscopic technique to observe local magnetic fields around atomic nuclei. The sample is placed in a magnetic fiel ...

(NMR), specifically solid-state NMR, to investigate the structure and dynamics of biopolymers and inorganic materials. Her research focuses on the protein-based

capsid A capsid is the protein shell of a virus, enclosing its genetic material. It consists of several oligomeric (repeating) structural subunits made of protein called protomers. The observable 3-dimensional morphological subunits, which may or may ...

assemblies of

HIV-1 The subtypes of HIV include two major types, HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV type 2 (HIV-2). HIV-1 is related to viruses found in chimpanzees and gorillas living in western Africa, while HIV-2 viruses are related to viruses found in the sooty mangabey, ...

, the most common strain of the virus that causes

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

. She has also investigated protein assemblies that are associated with

microtubule Microtubules are polymers of tubulin that form part of the cytoskeleton and provide structure and shape to eukaryotic cells. Microtubules can be as long as 50 micrometres, as wide as 23 to 27 nm and have an inner diameter between 11 an ...

s, important in the

cytoskeleton The cytoskeleton is a complex, dynamic network of interlinking protein filaments present in the cytoplasm of all cells, including those of bacteria and archaea. In eukaryotes, it extends from the cell nucleus to the cell membrane and is compos ...

, where breakdown of these assemblies can lead to various diseases. To enable new insight on complex systems, she develops new solid-state NMR methods for fast

magic angle spinning In solid-state NMR spectroscopy, magic-angle spinning (MAS) is a technique routinely used to produce better resolution NMR spectra. MAS NMR consists in spinning the sample (usually at a frequency of 1 to 130 kHz) at the magic angle θm (ca. 5 ...

(40–110 kHz),

19F NMR Fluorine-19 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fluorine NMR or 19F NMR) is an analytical technique used to detect and identify fluorine-containing compounds. 19F is an important nucleus for NMR spectroscopy because of its receptivity and ...

, and signal enhancement using

dynamic nuclear polarization Dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) results from transferring spin polarization from electrons to nuclei, thereby aligning the nuclear spins to the extent that electron spins are aligned. Note that the alignment of electron spins at a given magnetic ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Polenova, Tatyana American chemists American biochemists University of Delaware faculty Living people 1970 births American women academics Columbia University alumni City University of New York faculty Moscow State University alumni 21st-century American women