Joan E Curry

Joan E Curry

Associate Department Head, Environmental Science
Professor, Environmental Science
Member of the Graduate Faculty
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Contact
(520) 626-5081

Research Interest

Joan Curry, PhD, stands in the field of research related to interfacial chemistry, which is a focus within physical chemistry. Within interfacial chemistry, she focuses on chemistry of molecules at the interfaces where solids and liquids come together. The term solid here includes mineral and bacterial surfaces found in soils and sediments, metal and oxide machine surfaces and cell surfaces found in the human body. Molecules can be water and ions that bathe soil surfaces, organics that lubricate machine parts and large biomacromolecules, such as proteins and lipopolysaccharides, attached to cells that mediate cell adhesion. Her specific interests are: 1) determining the effect of confinement on liquids in general and lubricants in particular and 2) characterizing the adhesive properties of cell surface biomacromolecules. The primary goal of this work is to understand how biomacromolecules that cover cell surfaces influence the interaction and adhesion of cells with other cells and with solid surfaces. Cells can be either bacteria or human cells. It is important to understand bacterial adhesion because it is the first step in biofilm formation, which has numerous undesirable consequences ranging from heat exchanger fouling to medical implant infections. Currently, very little is known about how bacterial surface biomacromolecules mediate adhesion and therefore it is still not possible to control or manipulate the process. Human cell adhesion is also mediated by biomacromolecules, in particular proteins that bind to one another through specific lock and key mechanisms. The structure of many cell adhesion proteins is well known but their function is still poorly understood. In collaboration with Ronald Heimark (Surgery), Dr. Curry is working to understand how heavy metals such as cadmium affect the binding of cell adhesion proteins called cadherins. This work will help scientists understand better how heavy metals may lead to birth defects and in adults could accelerate cardiovascular disease. This work is experimental and involves direct force measurements between biomembrane covered mica surfaces with the Surface Forces Apparatus (SFA). With the SFA it is possible to measure the magnitude and distance dependence of molecular forces acting between two flat surfaces with angstrom and nanonewton resolution.

Publications

Curry, J. E., & Cushman, J. H. (1995). Nanophase coexistence and sieving in binary mixtures confined between corrugated walls. The Journal of Chemical Physics, 103(6), 2132-2139.

Abstract:

The grand canonical Monte Carlo method is used to study a binary mixture of Lennard-Jones atoms confined to a corrugated slit micropore which is in thermodynamic equilibrium with its bulk phase counterpart. The micropore has atomically structured walls; one of the which possesses nanoscale structure in the form of rectilinear grooves (corrugation). The grooved surface divides the confined fluid film into two strip shaped regions, that inside and that outside the grooves. Transverse solidlike order in the film gives rise to shear stress. Transverse order coupled with packing restrictions give rise to a difference between the pore and bulk fluid mixture compositions. Solidlike order may appear within the grooves only, outside the grooves only, or in both regions simultaneously. As the relative alignment of the walls is shifted the pore fluid undergoes freeze-thaw cycles in one or both regions with associated changes in the shear stress and pore fluid composition. The degree of transverse order in the film is less than would be expected in a pure Lennard-Jones film and fluid-solid phase transitions are gradual as opposed to sudden as seen in pure Lennard-Jones films. The magnitude of the shear stress is greatest when a fluid-solid phase transition occurs in both regions of the pore. © 1995 American Institute of Physics.

Helena, L., Curry, J. E., Stone, D. A., Carducci, M. D., & Chorover, J. (2009). Nickel incorporation in FE(II, III) hydroxysulfate green Rust: Effect on crystal lattice spacing and oxidation products. Revista Brasileira de Ciencia do Solo, 33(5), 1115-1123.

Abstract:

Ni(II)-Fe(II)-Fe(III) layered double hydroxides (LDH) or Ni-containing sulfate green rust (GR2) samples were prepared from Ni(II), Fe(II) and Fe(III) sulfate salts and analyzed with X ray diffraction. Nickel is readily incorporated in the GR2 structure and forms a solid solution between GR2 and a Ni(II)-Fe(III) LDH. There is a correlation between the unit cell a-value and the fraction of Ni(II) incorporated into the Ni(II)-GR2 structure. Since there is strong evidence that the divalent/trivalent cation ratio in GR2 is fixed at 2, it is possible in principle to determine the extent of divalent cation substitution for Fe(II) in GR2 from the unit cell a-value. Oxidation forms a mixture of minerals but the LDH structure is retained if at least 20 % of the divalent cations in the initial solution are Ni(II). It appears that Ni(II) is incorporated in a stable LDH structure. This may be important for two reasons, first for understanding the formation of LDHs, which are anion exchangers, in the natural environment. Secondly, this is important for understanding the fate of transition metals in the environment, particularly in the presence of reduced Fe compounds.