Research Interests for David N. Beratan

Dr. Beratan is developing theoretical approaches to understand the function of complex molecular and macromolecular systems, including: the molecular underpinnings of energy harvesting and charge transport in biology; the mechanism of solar energy capture and conversion in man-made structures; the nature of charge conductivity in naturally occurring nucleic acids and in synthetic constructs, including the photochemical repair of damaged DNA in extremophiles; CH bond activation by copper oxygenase enzymes; the flow of charge in bacterial appendages on the micrometer length scale; the theoretical foundations for inverse molecular design - the property driven discovery of chemical structures with optimal properties; the exploitation of molecular diversity in the mapping of molecular and materials "space"; the use of infra-red excitation to manipulate electron transport through molecules; the optical signatures of molecular chirality and the influence of chirality on charge transport. Prof. Beratan is affiliated with the Departments of Chemistry, Biochemistry, Physics, as well as Duke's programs in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Structural Biology and Biophysics, Nanosciences, and Phononics.

Keywords:

bioenergetics, Biophysics, Biosensing Techniques, Chemistry, Physical, chemistry, physical and theoretical, Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical, Drug Design, electron transfer theory, Electron Transport, Electronics, Energy Transfer, inverse design, Models, Theoretical, Nanotechnology, Optical Rotation, Oxidation-Reduction, Oxides, Oxidoreductases, Quantum Theory, Semiconductors, Stochastic Processes, theory of chirality, tunneling pathways

Recent Publications

1. Sun, R; Park, KS; Comstock, AH; McConnell, A; Chen, Y-C; Zhang, P; Beratan, D; You, W; Hoffmann, A; Yu, Z-G; Diao, Y; Sun, D, Inverse chirality-induced spin selectivity effect in chiral assemblies of π-conjugated polymers., Nature materials (March, 2024) [doi] [abs]
2. Dunlap-Shohl, WA; Tabassum, N; Zhang, P; Shiby, E; Beratan, DN; Waldeck, DH, Electron-donating functional groups strengthen ligand-induced chiral imprinting on CsPbBr₃ quantum dots., Scientific reports, vol. 14 no. 1 (January, 2024), pp. 336 [doi] [abs]
3. Mendis, KC; Li, X; Valdiviezo, J; Banziger, SD; Zhang, P; Ren, T; Beratan, DN; Rubtsov, IV, Electron transfer rate modulation with mid-IR in butadiyne-bridged donor-bridge-acceptor compounds., Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP, vol. 26 no. 3 (January, 2024), pp. 1819-1828 [doi] [abs]
4. Sun, K; Fang, C; Kang, M; Zhang, Z; Zhang, P; Beratan, DN; Brown, KR; Kim, J, Quantum Simulation of Polarized Light-Induced Electron Transfer with a Trapped-Ion Qutrit System., The journal of physical chemistry letters, vol. 14 no. 26 (July, 2023), pp. 6071-6077 [doi] [abs]
5. Terai, K; Yuly, JL; Zhang, P; Beratan, DN, Correlated particle transport enables biological free energy transduction., Biophysical journal, vol. 122 no. 10 (May, 2023), pp. 1762-1771 [doi] [abs]