Affiliated Faculty

Behavioral-Biomedical Sciences Interface

Nicole Creanza merges computational and theoretical approaches to the comparison of cultural and genetic evolution in multiple systems, particularly human language and birdsong.

David Calkins probes neurodegeneration affecting the visual system using an inter-disciplinary approach.

Bioinformatics and Computational Biology

Manuel Ascano integrates novel biochemical, molecular and cell biological tools with high-throughput transcriptomic and proteomic technologies to elucidate the gene regulatory networks in cellular stress.

Gregor Neuert combines quantitative experimental and computational frameworks to broad biological questions.

Amy Major probes the immunological mechanisms of cardiovascular disease, specifically T and B cell biology.

Cellular, Biochemical, and Molecular Sciences

Breann Brown examines protein-protein interactions that underlie bacterial cell signaling using a biophysical and biochemical assays to understand the regulation of cellular stress.

Bruce Carter is focused on the mechanisms of neurotrophin signaling and the molecular mechanisms of myelin formation.

James Dewar is working to understand the mechanisms that underlie the termination of DNA replication.

Kathy Friedman studies mechanisms that support genome stability at the intersection of DNA replication and DNA repair.

Vivian Gama seeks to reveal new molecular mechanisms involved in regulating cell fate.

Kathy Gould studies the proteins and signaling pathways that regulate cytokinesis and couple cell division to chromosome segregation in Schizosaccharomyces pombe and mammalian cells.

Rebecca Ihrie works in human tissue and animal models to identify and target subpopulations of cells that generate specific brain neuronal subtypes and for tumor growth and progression in the brain.

Lauren Jackson investigates membrane trafficking pathways to explore how cells initiate and regulate these pathways.

Ethan Lee is interested in understanding the basic mechanisms by which Wnt signaling is propagated and modulated.

Jason MacGurn wishes to understand how ubiquitin modifications regulate biological processes and underlie disease.

Neil Osheroff has the goal of defining the function and biology of eukaryotic topoisomerase II.

Andrea Page-McCaw is interested in how tissues are formed and how they are repaired with a focus on the interactions between epithelia and extracellular matrix, the basement membrane, in Drosophila.

Marija Zanic is fascinated by the dynamic behavior of the microtubule cytoskeleton and she uses a multidisciplinary approach to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of microtubule regulation.

Chemistry-Biology Interface

Fred Guengerich interrogates the enzymes involved in the activation and processing of xenobiotic chemicals (such as drugs and carcinogens), as well as steroids and vitamins.

Rena Robinson uses high-throughput analytical methodology and proteomics approaches to probe mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease and sepsis, including the molecular basis of health disparities.

Claus Schneider studies the biotransformation of small molecules in vitro and in vivo in human health and disease.

Genetics

David Miller uses the nematode, C. elegans, to study neural development and neuron-specific gene expression.

James Patton identifies changes in gene expression (mRNAs and miRNAs) during retinal regeneration in zebrafish.

David Samuels uses computational and genetic approaches to address human disease.

Michelle Southard-Smith probes the genetic basis of deficits of the peripheral nervous system in mouse models.

Molecular Biophysics

Walter Chazin studies the structure and function of macromolecular complexes that are important for human health.

Brandt Eichman uses structural biology approaches to understand how proteins recognize and manipulate DNA.

Irina Kaverina deciphers complex microtubule network arrangement and how microtubular arrays support cellular tasks.

Adrian Olivares examines linkers of nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton transmit force across the nuclear envelope to position the nucleus and regulate gene expression using single-molecule force spectroscopy.

Chuck Sanders seeks to elucidate the molecular biophysical mechanisms by which such mutations result in protein dysfunction and/or misfolding and mistrafficking early in the secretory pathway.

Molecular Medicine

Jin Chen is focused on the role of Eph receptor tyrosine kinases in tumor metabolism, cancer metastasis, neovascularization, and tumor immunity.

Wonder Drake examines the molecular biology and immunopathogenesis of chronic inflammatory states, particularly sarcoidosis.

Maria Hadjifrangiskou is interested in understanding regulatory mechanisms that underlie multicellular behavior, bacterial competition and virulence in bacteria that cause urinary tract infections.

Rachelle Johnson examines signaling pathways in breast cancer metastasis and breast cancer dormancy in bone.

Julie Rhoades-Sterling investigates the signaling pathways that drive tumor growth in bone and bone destruction.

Pharmacological Sciences

Seva Gurevich probes structural basis of the function of arrestin proteins. 

Houra Merrikh discovered that a novel antimicrobial therapeutic target, Mfd, which quickens the mutation process which improves the chances of bacteria developing resistance.

C. Henrique Serezani probes the mechanisms of inflammation that contribute to pathological processes in an effort to target the immune system.

Danny Winder takes a combination of brain slice electrophysiological and biochemical approaches, with behavioral analysis in mice, to determine the changes produced by drugs of abuse that induce relapse.

Systems and Integrative Biology

Roger Colbran uses multidisciplinary approaches to investigate the roles of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II that underlying the synaptic plasticity of learning and memory.

Barbara Fingleton identifies the functions of members of the Matrix Metalloproteinase family in inflammation and cancer.

Alyssa Hasty studies the role of macrophages in obesity and metabolic disease.

Doug McMahon examines mechanisms of plasticity in the central nervous system – the visual, circadian and serotonergic systems that mediate sense of sight, drive daily rhythms and influence mood.

Mariana Byndloss uses a multidisciplinary approach to understand how inflammation-dependent changes in gut epithelial metabolism can result in gut dysbiosis and increased risk to non-communicable disease.