Carlos Bustamante

Carlos Bustamante
Carlos Bustamante
Born	1951 Lima, Peru
Residence	U.S.
Nationality	U.S.
Fields	Biophysics
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley
Alma mater	Cayetano Heredia University, National University of San Marcos, University of California, Berkeley
Doctoral advisor	Ignacio Tinoco, Jr.
Known for	Biophysics of DNA and protein
Notable awards	Max Delbruck Prize (2002) Alexander Hollaender Award in Biophysics (2004)
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Carlos José Bustamante (born 1951 in Lima, Peru) is an American scientist. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Bustamante is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator and professor of molecular and cell biology, physics, and chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, a position he has held since 1998. He received his BS from Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, his masters in biochemistry from National University of San Marcos in Lima, and his PhD in biophysics from UC Berkeley, where he studied with Ignacio Tinoco, Jr. As a postdoctoral fellow at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Bustamante studied with Marcos Maestre. Before moving to Berkeley, he was an HHMI investigator at the University of Oregon.

Carlos Bustamante uses novel methods of single-molecule visualization, such as scanning force microscopy, to study the structure and function of nucleoprotein assemblies. His laboratory is developing methods of single-molecule manipulation, such as optical tweezers, to characterize the elasticity of DNA, to induce the mechanical unfolding of individual protein molecules, and to investigate the machine-like behavior of molecular motors.