Gary J. Pielak (born July 17, 1955) is an American biological chemist who is known for developing quantitative techniques for measuring protein structure, stability, diffusion, and concentration in living cells, and under crowded conditions.
[11] Using in-cell nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a technique he helped develop,[12] Pielak determined that the effects of in-cell crowding do not arise solely from the close-packed nature of the cytoplasm but rather that repulsive and attractive chemical interactions between cellular components determine the effects of macromolecular crowding.
He and his collaborators have presented a quantitative model to explain crowding effects that is independent of crowder identity.
He was an invited speaker at the 2017 Nobel Symposium on Protein Folding: From Mechanisms to Impact on Cells, in Stockholm, Sweden.
[citation needed] In 2024, he was an invited speaker at Protein Folding Dynamics Gordon Research Conference in Galveston, Texas.
Francois-Xavier Theillet, Andres Binolfi, Tamara Frembgen-Kesner, Karan Hingorani, Mohona Sarkar, Ciara Kyne, Conggang Li, Peter B Crowley, Lila Gierasch, Gary J Pielak, Adrian H Elcock, Anne Gershenson, Philipp Selenko.
Matthew M Dedmon, Chetan N Patel, Gregory B Young, Gary J Pielak, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99 (20), 12681-12684.