Knobler, Charles M.

Physical

Website

Home URL

Division

Physical

Title

Faculty
Professor Emeritus

Specialties

Biophysics and Structural Biology
Physical Chemistry

cmk@chem.ucla.edu

Office

Young Hall 2077A

Office Phone

(310) 825-4330

Lab

Young Hall 2077D

Office Lab

(310) 825-4330

1951-1953
Jerome Aaron Scholarship
1957-1958
Union Carbide Fellow
1958-1959
Fulbright Scholar
1980
Herbert Newby McCoy Award
1983
Fellow, American Physical Society
1983
UCLA Alumni Association Distinguished Teaching Award
1990
Alexander von Humboldt Senior Award, University of Mainz
1997
UCLA College of Letters and Science Faculty Award
1998
Alexander von Humboldt Senior Award, Max Planck Institute, Potsdam
2000
Kolthoff Lecturer, University of Minnesota
2002
American Chemical Society Award in Colloid Chemistry

Representative Publications

Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M. (2022) How and why RNA genomes are (partially) ordered in viral capsids. Curr. Opin. Virol. 52:203-210.
Tanimoto, C. R., Thurm, A. R., Brandt, D. S., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M. (2022) The Nonmonotonic Dose Dependence of Protein Expression in Cells Transfected with Self-Amplifying RNA. J. Virol. 96 (7). doi: 10.1128/jvi.01858-21
Duran-Meza, A. L., Villagrande-Escareno, M. V., Ruiz-Garcia, J., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M. (2021) Controlling the surface charge of simple viruses. PLoS ONE, 16(9): e0255820.
Beren, C., Cui, Y., Chakravarty, A., Yang, X., Knobler, C. M, Zhou, Z. H., Gelbart, W. M. (2020) Genome organization and interaction with capsid protein in a multipartite RNA virus. PNAS, 117 (20), 10673-80.
Thurm, A. R., Beren, C., Duran-Meza, A. L., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M. (2019) RNA homopolymers form higher-curvature virus-like particles than do normal-composition RNAs. Biophysical Journal, 117 (7), 1331-41.
Chung, S., Lerner, E., Jin, Y., Kim, S., Alhadid, Y., Grimaud, L. W., Zhang, I. X., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M., Weiss, S. (2019) The effect of macromolecular crowding on single-round transcription by Escherichia coli RNA polymerase. Nucleic Acids Research, 47 (3), 1440-50.
Biddlecome, A., Habte, H. H., McGrath, K. M, Sambanthamoorthy, S., Wurm, M., Sykora, M. M., Knobler, C. M., Lorenz, I. C., Lasaro, M., Elbers, K., Gelbart, W. M. (2019) Delivery of self-amplifying RNA vaccines in in vitro reconstituted virus-like particles. PLoS ONE, 14 (6): e0215031.
Beren, C. B., Liu, K. N., Dreesens, L. L., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M. (2018) Enzymatic Synthesis and Fractionation of Fluorescent PolyU RNAs. Bio-protocols, 8 (17) e2988.
Garmann R. F., Knobler C. M., Gelbart W. M. (2018) Protocol for Efficient Cell-Free Synthesis of Cowpea Chlorotic Mottle Virus-Like Particles Containing Heterologous RNAs. In: Wege C., Lomonossoff G. (eds) Virus-Derived Nanoparticles for Advanced Technologies. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1776. Humana Press, New York, NY
Chen, Y. J., Wu, D., Gelbart, W. M., Knobler, C. M., Phillips, R., Kegel, W. K. (2018) Two-Stage Dynamics of In Vivo Bacteriophage Genome Ejection. Phys. Rev. X, American Physical Society, 8, 021029.
Beren, C., Dreesens, L. L., Liu, K. N., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2017). The effect of RNA secondary structure on the self-assembly of viral capsids. Biophysical journal, 113, 339-347.
Garmann, R. F., Gopal, A., Athavale, S. S., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M., & Harvey, S. C. (2015). Visualizing the global secondary structure of a viral RNA genome with cryo-electron microscopy. Rna, 21(5), 877-86.
Garmann, R. F., Comas-Garcia, M., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2015). Physical principles in the self-assembly of a simple spherical virus. Accounts of chemical research, 49, 48-55.
Jin, Y., Sdao, S. M., Dover, J. A., Porcek, N. B., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M., & Parent, K. N. (2015). Bacteriophage P22 ejects all of its internal proteins before its genome. Virology, 485, 128-134.
Singaram, S. W., Garmann, R. F., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M., & Ben-Shaul, A. (2015). Role of RNA branchedness in the competition for viral capsid proteins. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 119, 13991-14002.
Jin, Y., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2015). Controlling the extent of viral genome release by a combination of osmotic stress and polyvalent cations. Physical Review E, 92, 022708.
Garmann, R. F., Sportsman, R., Beren, C., Manoharan, V. N., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2015). A simple RNA-DNA scaffold templates the assembly of monofunctional virus-like particles. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137, 7584-7587.
Gopal, A., Egecioglu, D. E., Yoffe, A. M., Ben-Shaul, A., Rao, A. L., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2014). Viral RNAs are unusually compact. PLoS One, 9, e105875.
Comas-Garcia, M., Garmann, R. F., Singaram, S. W., Ben-Shaul, A., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2014). Characterization of viral capsid protein self-assembly around short single-stranded RNA. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 118, 7510-7519.
Garmann, R. F., Comas-Garcia, M., Koay, M. S., Cornelissen, J. J., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2014). The role of electrostatics in the assembly pathway of a single-stranded RNA virus. Journal of virology, JVI–01044.
Garmann, R. F., Comas-Garcia, M., Gopal, A., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2014). The assembly pathway of an icosahedral single-stranded RNA virus depends on the strength of inter-subunit attractions. Journal of molecular biology, 426, 1050-1060.
Vega-Acosta, J. R., Cadena-Nava, R. D., Gelbart, W. M., Knobler, C. M., & Ruiz-Garcı́a, J. (2014). Electrophoretic mobilities of a viral capsid, its capsid protein, and their relation to viral assembly. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 118, 1984-1989.
Azizgolshani, O., Garmann, R. F., Cadena-Nava, R., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2013). Reconstituted plant viral capsids can release genes to mammalian cells. Virology, 441, 12-17.
Cadena-Nava, R. D., Comas-Garcia, M., Garmann, R. F., Rao, A. L., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2012). Self-assembly of viral capsid protein and RNA molecules of different sizes: requirement for a specific high protein/RNA mass ratio. Journal of virology, 86, 3318-3326.
Gopal, A., Zhou, Z. H., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2012). Visualizing large RNA molecules in solution. Rna, 18, 284-299.
Comas-Garcia, M., Cadena-Nava, R. D., Rao, A. L., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2012). In vitro quantification of the relative packaging efficiencies of single-stranded RNA molecules by viral capsid protein. Journal of virology, JVI–01695.
Snyder, J. E., Azizgolshani, O., Wu, B., He, Y., Lee, A. C., Jose, J., Suter, D. M., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M., Kuhn, R. J. (2011). Rescue of Infectious Particles from Pre-assembled Alphavirus Nucleocapsid Cores. Journal of virology.
Cadena-Nava, R. D., Hu, Y., Garmann, R. F., Ng, B., Zelikin, A. N., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2011). Exploiting fluorescent polymers to probe the self-assembly of virus-like particles. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 115, 2386-2391.
Qiu, X., Rau, D. C., Parsegian, V. A., Fang, L. T., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2011). Salt-dependent DNA-DNA spacings in intact bacteriophage λ reflect relative importance of DNA self-repulsion and bending energies. Physical review letters, 106, 028102.
Prinsen, P., Schoot, P., Gelbart, W. M., & Knobler, C. M. (2010). Multishell structures of virus coat proteins. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 114, 5522-5533.
Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2010). What Determines the Size of an RNA Virus? In Emerging Topics in Physical Virology (pp. 185-215). World Scientific.
Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2009). Physical chemistry of DNA viruses. Annual review of physical chemistry, 60, 367-383.
Gelbart, W. M., & Knobler, C. M. (2009). Pressurized viruses. Science, 323, 1682-1683.
Prinsen, P., Fang, L. T., Yoffe, A. M., Knobler, C. M., & Gelbart, W. M. (2009). The force acting on a polymer partially confined in a tube. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 113, 3873-3879.
Lavelle, L., Gingery, M., Phillips, M., Gelbart, W. M., Knobler, C. M., Cadena-Nava, R. D., Vega-Acosta, J. R., Pinedo-Torres, L. A., Ruiz-Garcia, J. (2009). Phase diagram of self-assembled viral capsid protein polymorphs. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 113, 3813-3819.
Yoffe, A. M., Prinsen, P., Gopal, A., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M., & Ben-Shaul, A. (2008). Predicting the sizes of large RNA molecules. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Chang, C. B., Knobler, C. M., Gelbart, W. M. and Mason, T. G. Curvature Dependence of Viral Protein Structures on Encapsidated Nanoemulsion Droplets, ACS Nano, 2008; 2: 281-6.
Evilevitch, A., Fang, L.-T., Yoffe, A. M., Castelnuovo, M., Rau, D. C., Parsegian, Gelbart W. M. and Knobler,. C. M. Effects of Salt Concentrations and Bending Energy on the Extent of Ejection of Phage Genomes, Biophys. J., 2008; 94: 1110-20.
Hu, Y., Zandi, R., Anavitarte, A. Knobler, C. M. and Gelbart, W. M. Packaging of a Polymer by a Viral Capsid: The Interplay Between Polymer Length and Capsid Size, Biophys. J., 2008; 94: 1428-36.
Gelbart, W. M. and Knobler, C. M. The Physics of Phage, Physics Today, 2008; 61: 42-54.
W. S. Klug, R. F. Bruinsma, J.-P. Michel, C. M. Knobler, I. L. Ivanovska, C. F. Schmidt and G. J. L. Wuite Failure of Viral Shells, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2006; 97: 228101-4.
Michel, J.P., Ivanovska, I.L., Gibbons, M. M., W. Klug, W. S., Knobler, C. M.,.Wuite, G. J. L., and Schmidt, C., F. Nanoindentation studies of full and empty viral capsids and the effects of capsid protein mutations on elasticity and strength, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci (USA), 2006; 103: 430-6.
Grayson, P., Evilevitch, A., Inamdar, M. M., Purohit, P. K., Gelbart, W. M., Knobler, C. M. and Phillips, R. The effect of genome length on ejection forces in bacteriophage lambda, Virology, 2006; 348: 3845-8.
Evilevitch, A., Gober, J. W., Phillips, M., Knobler, C. M. and Gelbart, W. M. Measurements of DNA lengths remaining in a viral capsid after osmotically suppressed partial ejection, Biophys. J., 2005; 88: 751-6.
Evilevitch, A. , Castelnovo, M., Knobler, C. M., and Gelbart, W. M. Measuring the Force Ejecting DNA from Phage, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2004; 108: 6838-43.
Evilevitch, A., Lavelle, L., Knobler, C. M., Raspaud, E. and Gelbart, W. M. Osmotic pressure inhibition of DNA ejection from phage, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. (USA), 2003; 100: 9292-9295.

Knobler, Charles M.

Honors & Awards

Representative Publications