| Birth Name: | Carlos José Bustamante |
| Birth Date: | 6 May 1951 |
| Birth Place: | Lima, Peru |
| Nationality: | Peru, U.S. |
| Field: | Biophysics |
| Work Institution: | 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 |
Carlos José Bustamante (born 1951 in Lima, Peru) is a Peruvian-American scientist. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences.[1]
Carlos Bustamante is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator,[2] professor of molecular and cell biology, physics, and chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley,[3] and Biophysicist Faculty Scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.[4]
Bustamante studied medicine at National University of San Marcos before discovering his true interest in biochemistry. He received his BSc from Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, his MSc 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.