THE FACULTY
Faculty from several departments participate in our program. They are listed below according to research area.
- Microbial Biochemistry and Virology
- Structural Biology
- Chemical Biology
- Cellular and Medicinal Biochemistry
- Plant Biochemistry
Microbial Biochemistry and Virology
Carl Bauer: Oxygen and light regulation of gene expression; biosynthesis of heme and chlorophyll; prokaryotic development.
Yves Brun: Cell cycle control, cell division, and cell differentiation in bacteria; bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation.
Lingling Chen: Structural and biochemical studies on protein-protein interactions in GroEL-mediated protein folding and microbial communications.
Pranav Danthi: Viral and cellular determinants of virus-induced cell death and disease.
Bogdan Dragnea: Virus-based biomaterials; biophotonics; biophysical chemistry of virus self-assembly; methodologies for measuring microscopic dynamics in supramolecular complexes.
Patricia L. Foster: Mutagenesis, DNA repair, replication, and recombination.
Clay Fuqua: Multicellular interactions of bacteria.
David P. Giedroc: Metal sensor proteins in pathogenic bacteria; NMR structural studies of regulatory RNAs in mammalian RNA viruses.
Richard Hardy: Genome functions of RNA viruses and the roles of trans-acting factors.
Cheng Kao: RNA virus replication; innate immunity; receptor-ligand recognition; viral nanotechnology
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.
Martha G. Oakley: Bacterial chromosome segregation; coiled coil proteins; phosphoinositide control of protein function; structure-function relationships.
Malcolm E. Winkler: Physiology, pathogenesis, molecular genetics, stress responses, and genomics of the gram-positive human respiratory pathogenic bacterium, Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Adam Zlotnick: Physical and structural basis of virus self-assembly from the perspectives of biological activity, antiviral strategies, and nanotechnology.
Structural Biology
Carl Bauer: Crystallographic analysis of bacterial transcription factors that respond to changes in cellular redox, light and heme.
Lingling Chen: Structural and biochemical studies on protein-protein interactions in GroEL-mediated protein folding and microbial communications.
Charles E. Dann III: Biochemical, mechanistic, and X-ray crystallographic analyses of regulatory RNAs; developing riboswitch-based molecular sensors.
David P. Giedroc: Metal sensor proteins in pathogenic bacteria; NMR structural studies of regulatory RNAs in mammalian RNA viruses.
Tuli Mukhopadhyay: Cryo-EM analysis of the structure and assembly of enveloped RNA viruses.
Joel A. Ybe: Structure and function of Huntingtin-interacting protein 1(HIP1) in clathrin-mediated endocytosis and in the neurodegenerative disorder, Huntington's disease.
Adam Zlotnick: Physical and structural basis of virus self-assembly from the perspectives of biological activity, antiviral strategies, and nanotechnology.
Chemical Biology
Zachary D. Aron: Studies of how biosynthetic tools and strategies can be used to generate biologically active small molecules; relevant areas include polyketide biosynthesis, enzyme engineering, enzyme mimetics, 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.
David L. Daleke: Membrane structure and function; regulation of lipid organization by “flippases” in normal and diabetic blood cells.
Richard D. DiMarchi: Structure-activity relationships of macromolecules.
Jim Drummond: Limited alphabet coding sequences and proteins: a minimalist approach to macromolecular structure and interactions.
Martha G. Oakley: Bacterial chromosome segregation; coiled coil proteins; phosphoinositide control of protein function; structure-function relationships.
Peter J. Ortoleva: Numerical simulation of molecular and viral dynamics and their self-replication; metabolic, genomic, proteomic, modeling.
Michael VanNieuwenhze: Synthesis and design of antibiotics that inhibit peptidoglycan biosynthesis; bacterial cell wall morphology, synthesis and study of anticancer agents, natural products synthesis.
Milos V. Novotny: Interaction of mammalian pheromones with olfactory proteins; bioanalytical chemistry/high-sensitivity structural determinations in glycobiology; ligand/polysaccharide interactions.
James P. Reilly: Bacteria fingerprinting and proteomics by mass spectrometry; analysis of bacterial ribosomes; development of novel mass spectrometric techniques.
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; Synthesis and mechanistic evaluation of metal-mediated therapeutic agents.
Cellular and Medicinal Biochemistry
Zachary D. Aron: Studies of how biosynthetic tools and strategies can be used to generate biologically active small molecules; relevant areas include polyketide biosynthesis, enzyme engineering, enzyme mimetics, natural product synthesis and therapeutics discovery.
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.
Heather Bradshaw: Female reproductive neuroendocrinology and the neurochemistry of reproductive pain.
Yves Brun: Cell cycle control, cell division, and cell differentiation in bacteria; bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation.
Brian Calvi: Cell cycle control of DNA replication and genome stability.
Peter Cherbas: Drosophila development and genomics; nuclear receptors.
David L. Daleke: Membrane structure and function; regulation of lipid organization by “flippases” in normal and diabetic blood cells.
Viola Ellison: Human chromosome duplication and maintenance of genome integrity.
John G. Foley: Identification of novel strategies to treat cancer bone metastasis; skin development and pathology.
Cheng Kao: RNA virus replication; innate immunity; receptor-ligand recognition; viral nanotechnology.
Cary Lai: Developmental neurobiology; the use of transgenic mouse models to study nervous system function.
Kenneth Mackie: Regulation of cannabinoid receptor signaling; regulation of endocannabinoid production; role of endocannabinoids in synaptic plasticity; novel cannabinoid receptors.
Manjari Mazumdar: Molecular motor function in chromatin organization during development and cancer.
Tai Min: Molecular mechanisms of Down syndrome, neurological disorders, and aging.
Kenneth P. Nephew: DNA methylation in ovarian cancer; breast cancer chemoprevention; spinal cord regeneration; steroid hormone action.
Craig S. Pikaard: Biochemistry of gene regulation; enzymes of RNA-mediated gene silencing pathwayss; biochemical analyses of chromatin modifying enzymes; structure and function of plant RNA polymerases IV and V.
Anne Prieto: Function and signaling of receptor tyrosine kinases and their ligands in the developing and mature nervous system.
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.
Sidney L. Shaw: Microtubule dynamics and cellular morphogenesis in Arabidopsis .
Claire E. Walczak: Mechanisms of mitotic spindle assembly and chromosome segregation; regulation of microtubule dynamics during interphase and mitosis.
Plant Biochemistry
Bogdan Dragnea: Virus-based biomaterials; biophotonics; biophysical chemistry of virus self-assembly; methodologies for measuring microscopic dynamics in supramolecular complexes.
Cheng Kao: RNA virus replication; innate immunity; receptor-ligand recognition; viral nanotechnology
Craig S. Pikaard: Biochemistry of gene regulation; enzymes of RNA-mediated gene silencing pathwayss; biochemical analyses of chromatin modifying enzymes; structure and function of plant RNA polymerases IV and V.
Sidney L. Shaw: Microtubule dynamics and cellular morphogenesis in Arabidopsis .
