RESEARCH INTERESTS

Arlene D. Albert, Professor; Ph.D. Biochemistry of vision; signal transduction in rod outer segments; lipid organization in photoreceptors; rhodopsin structure; protein-lipid interactions.

Nathan N. Alder, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. Biochemical and biophysical approaches to studying the structure, function, and biogenesis of membrane proteins; fluorescence-based investigation of membrane protein complexes and protein trafficking in mitochondria; membrane bioenergetics; organelle biogenesis.

Andrei T. Alexandrescu, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. High-resolution solution NMR investigations of protein structure, folding, dynamics, and association; conserved physical properties of OB-fold proteins; HIV regulatory/accessory proteins.

David R. Benson, Professor and Department Head; Ph.D. Microbial physiology, biochemistry, and molecular genetics; symbiotic nitrogen fixation; food microbiology.

Peter Burkhard, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Structure-based rational design of self-assembling small proteins; biophysical properties and medical applications of these nanoparticles.

Kenneth Campellone, Assistant Professor; Ph.D.Understanding how actin and microtubule cytoskeletons drive membrane dynamics in normal mammalian cells, and how the machinery that controls cytoskeletal and membrane dynamics is short-circuited by effector proteins from pathogenic bacteria. A combination of genetic, biochemical, cellular, and computational approaches are used to study these processes.

Thomas T. Chen, Professor and Director, Biotechnology Center; Ph.D. Structure, evolution, regulation, and molecular actions of growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor genes; regulation of foreign genes in transgenic fish; development of model transgenic fish.

James Cole, Associate Professor and Head, National Ultracentrifugation Facility; Ph.D. Biophysical and biochemical analysis of enzyme regulation; structure and function of protein kinase PKR; mechanism of HIV entry; structure and function of retroviral integrases; analytical ultracentrifugation.

Daniel J. Gage, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Molecular genetics of plant-microbe interactions; bacterial physiology; regulation of bacterial gene expression in response to extracellular signals.

Charles Giardina, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Studies of eukaryotic RNA polymerase II transcription regulation; mechanisms governing transcription of stress-response genes; the nature of RNA polymerase II interactions at the promoter.

J. Peter Gogarten, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor; Ph.D. Origin and early evolution of cellular life; molecular evolution; horizontal gene transfer and gene duplications; comparative genomics.

David J. Goldhamer, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Regulation of cell fates in mammalian development; transcriptional control and function of skeletal muscle regulatory genes; muscle stem cell function and plasticity; mechanism of heterotopic bone formation in human disease.

Jöerg Graf, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. Molecular genetics of bacteria-animal interactions; identification of bacterial genes required for host symbiosis; pathogenesis, evolution of virulence factors.

David A. Knecht, Professor; Ph.D. Actin cytoskeleton dynamics; small G proteins and signal transduction; phagocytosis; endocytosis; cell motility and chemotaxis.

Juliet Lee, Associate Professor; Ph.D. The regulation of cell movement; mechanochemical signal transduction; the role of intracellular calcium; cellular force production and its relationship to adhesion formation and cytoskeletal dynamics.

Michael A. Lynes, Professor and Associate Department Head for Research and Graduate Education; Ph.D. Genetic and biochemical control of the immune response; membrane structure and function during development; mechanisms of autoimmune dysfunction; multiplexed surface plasmon resonance imaging microarray assessments of biological signatures.

Philip I. Marcus, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Interim Director, Biotechnology, Bioservices Center; Ph.D. Animal virus-cell interactions; viral interference; the interferon system; regulation of interferon induction-suppression by viruses; cell killing by viruses; development of the avian interferon system; inducible ds RNase.

Barbara Mellone, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. Molecular and cell biology of chromosome segregation; molecular dissection of centromere formation and transmission; cell-cycle regulation of centromere-associated proteins; high-resolution and time-lapse microscopy of chromosome dynamics.

Craig E. Nelson, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. Molecular biological, genetic, genomic, and computational analysis of the evolution of developmental processes and organismal complexity.

Kenneth M. Noll, Professor and Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Research and Education; Ph.D. Biochemistry and molecular biology of thermophilic bacteria and archaebacteria; physiology of extremely thermophilic anaerobes; evolution of genome organization in prokaryotes.

Spencer V. Nyholm, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. Host-microbe interactions; symbiosis; relationship between beneficial bacteria and the innate immune system; comparative immunology.

Michael J. O’Neill, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Molecular genetics of vertebrate development; molecular mechanisms of genomic imprinting; evolution of genomic imprinting; genetics of imprinting and behavior.

Rachel J. Waugh O’Neill, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Genetics of speciation; mammalian chromosome evolution; genome evolution and remodeling; transposable elements and retroelements; hybridogenesis and clonal inheritance in vertebrates; epigenetics.

R. Thane Papke, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. Ecology and evolution of bacteria that live in extreme environments; community structure and function; bacterial species and speciation; comparative genomics; bacterial population genetics.

Andrew J. Pask, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Comparative genetics; molecular mechanisms of sex determination and sexual differentiation; mammalian development; reproductive physiology.

Wolf-Dieter D. Reiter, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Molecular genetics of cell-wall synthesis in Arabidopsis; structure and function of plant cell walls; developmental regulation of cell-wall deposition; biochemistry of plant carbohydrates.

Victoria Robinson, Assistant Professor; Ph.D. Genetic, biochemical, and structural methodologies to study novel families of bacterial GTPases as targets for antimicrobial development.

Linda D. Strausbaugh, Professor and Director, Center for Applied Genetics and Technology; Ph.D. Structure, function, and evolution of multigene families; molecular genetics of insects.

Carolyn M. Teschke; Associate Professor; Ph.D. Biochemical, biophysical, and genetic analyses of protein folding; interaction of folding intermediates with molecular chaperones; assembly of viral capsids.

Ping Zhang, Associate Professor; Ph.D. Drosophila chromosome structure and function; P element insertional mutagenesis; unusual transcriptional regulation of heterochromatin; Y chromosome genes required for spermatogenesis.

Adam Zweifach, Associate Professor, Ph.D. Lymphocyte physiology and cell biology; role of intracellular calcium dynamics in lymphocyte function; molecular mechanisms of exocytosis; signaling in the immune system.