THE FACULTY

Faculty from several departments participate in our program. They are listed below according to departmental affiliation.

Biology
Chemistry
Medical Science
Optometry
Psychology

Biology

Carl Bauer: Oxygen and light regulation of gene expression; biosynthesis of heme and chlorophyll; prokaryotic development .

José Bonner: Genetic and molecular analysis of heat shock response.

Yves Brun: Cell cycle control, cell division, and cell differentiation in bacteria; bacterial adhesion.

Lingling Chen: Structural and biochemical studies on protein-protein interactions in GroEL-mediated protein folding and microbial communications.

Peter Cherbas: Drosophila development and genomics; nuclear receptors.

Jim Drummond: Mechanistic studies of DNA mismatch and lesion processing.

Viola Ellison: Human chromosome duplication and maintenance of genome integrity.

Mark Estelle: Molecular genetics of hormone action in Arabidopsis.

Patricia L. Foster: Mutagenesis, DNA repair, replication, and recombination.

Clay Fuqua: Multicellular interactions of bacteria.

Richard Hardy: Genome functions of RNA viruses and the roles of trans-acting factors.

David Kehoe: Environmental regulation of gene expression in bacteria.

Melanie Marketon: Molecular mechanisms of pathogenic microbe-host interactions.

Tuli Mukhopadhyay: Structure and assembly of enveloped, RNA viruses.

David Nelson: Study of the chlamydial virulence factors and host response.

Joe Pomerening: Signal transduction pathways governing early embryonic and somatic cell cycles, and understanding the integration of feedback loops and other signaling elements in their M-phase control systems.

Elizabeth C. Raff: Control of microtubule function in vivo.

Sidney L. Shaw: Microtubule dynamics and cellular morphogenesis in Arabidopsis.

Malcolm E. Winkler: Physiology, pathogenesis, molecular genetics, stress responses, and genomics of the gram-positive human respiratory pathogenic bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Joel Ybe: X-ray crystallographic and biochemical studies of membrane vesicle protein coats.

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Chemistry

Zachary Aron: Studies of how biosynthetic tools and strategies can be applied to chemical synthesis; relevant areas include polyketide synthases, enzyme mimetics, enzyme engineering, natural product synthesis and therapeutics discovery.

Erin Carlson: Define the mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis using proteomics and metabolomics; identify therapeutic agents through natural products discovery.

David E. Clemmer: Conformational analysis of proteins and peptides; development of techniques for examining mixtures of biomolecules.

Charles E. Dann III: (Arriving Fall 2008) Biochemical, mechanistic, and X-ray crystallographic analyses of regulatory RNAs; developing riboswitch-based molecular sensors.

Richard D. DiMarchi: Structure-activity relationships of macromolecules.

Bogdan Dragnea: Principles of virus self-assembly; biophotonic applications of nanoparticles; dynamics in supramolecular aggregates.

David P. Giedroc: Metalloregulatory proteins; zinc-finger proteins; RNA structure and folding.

Milos V. Novotny: Interaction of mammalian pheromones with olfactory proteins; bioanalytical chemistry/high-sensitivity structural determinations in glycobiology; ligand/polysaccharide interactions.

Martha G. Oakley: Specificity of coiled-coil interactions and protein-lipid interactions.

Peter J. Ortoleva: Numerical simulation of molecular and viral dynamics and their self-replication; metabolic, genomic, proteomic, modeling.

James P. Reilly: Bacteria fingerprinting and proteomics by mass spectrometry. Development of MALDI/TOF techniques.

Thomas J. Tolbert: Biochemistry and glycobiology; semisynthesis of modified proteins; production and study of glycoproteins; isotopic labeling of biomolecules; biomolecular NMR.

Michael VanNieuwenhze: Synthesis and design of antibiotics that inhibit peptidoglycan biosynthesis; bacterial cell wall morphology, synthesis and study of anticancer agents, natural products synthesis.

Theodore S. Widlanski: Bioorganic methodology; enzyme reaction mechanisms; anti-breast tumor agents; DNA polymerization; new strategies for HIV inhibition; phosphotyrosine phosphatases; biomimetic catalysis.

Jeffrey M. Zaleski: Probing metal ions and catalytic nucleic acids using various ground and excited state spectroscopic methods.

Faming Zhang: Solving crystal structures of protein complexes in fat cell signaling and tumor angiogenesis pathways to aid the design of anti-obesity and anti-cancer drugs.

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Medical Science

David L. Daleke: Membrane structure and function; regulation of lipid organization by “flippases” in normal and diabetic blood cells.

John G. Foley: Regulation of epidermal differentiation; identification of tumor-specific promoters.

Manjari Mazumdar: Molecular motor function in chromatin organization during development and cancer.

Kenneth P. Nephew: DNA methylation in ovarian cancer; breast cancer chemoprevention; spinal cord regeneration; steroid hormone action.

Claire E. Walczak: Mechanisms of mitotic spindle assembly and chromosome segregation; regulation of microtubule dynamics during interphase and mitosis.

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Optometry

Joseph A. Bonanno: Regulation of epithelial cell ION transport and fluid secretion; role of carbonic anhydrase in HCO₃ transport; hypoxia pre-conditioning and protection from UV induced apoptosis.

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Psychology

Heather Bradshaw: Female reproductive neuroendocrinology and the neurochemistry of reproductive pain.

Ken Mackie: Regulation of CB1 cannabinoid receptor signaling; regulation of endocannabinoid production; role of endocannabinoids in synaptic plasticity; novel cannabinoid receptors.

Anne Prieto: Function and signaling of receptor tyrosine kinases and their ligands in the developing and mature nervous system.

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