Faculty

Ariel Alperstein (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Spectroscopy, cell/tissue imaging, super-resolution instrument development, transport kinetics, protein structure, protein-protein interactions

Learn about Dr. Alperstein’s Research HERE.

Jeremy Bird (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: My lab is broadly interested in two intersecting topics The first is the molecular mechanism of transcription of RNAs by RNA polymerases. Transcription is the first and most highly regulated step of gene expression. The mechanism of RNA polymerase can be modulated by a number of factors at any of the three steps of transcription, initiation, elongation and termination, all of which have significant effects on transcriptional output and overall expression of genes. To this end, my lab uses a combination of next generation RNA sequencing techniques, structural and biochemical analysis to probe fundamental questions about the activities of both prokaryotic and mitochondrial RNA polymerases and how these enzymes are regulated. 

Learn about Dr. Bird’s Research HERE.

Brian Bahnson (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Intermediates of Enzyme Reactions; Interfacial Membrane Proteins and Enzyme Motions in Catalysis Viewed by X-ray Crystallography

Learn about Dr. Bahnson’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Mark Blenner (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Engineering Cells (Yeast, Mammalian, and Bacteria) to make Biopharmaceuticals, Natural Products, Industrial Enzymes, Renewable Chemicals, Biomaterials, and Biosensors

Learn about Dr. Blenner’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Karl Booksh (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: In situ chemical sensors for environmental, biomedical, and industrial process monitoring

Learn about Dr. Booksh’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Fidelma Boyd (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Mechanisms of Emergence of Enteric Pathogens

Learn about Dr. Boyd HERE.

Matthew Butchbach (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Early-onset Motor Neuron Diseases; Genetics, Molecular Mechanisms and Drug Discovery

Learn more about Dr. Butchbach HERE.

William Chain ( Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests:  Total Synthesis of Natural Products, Methodological Development, Anti-Cancer Agents, Cancer Biology.

Learn about Dr. Chain’s Research HERE.

Wilfred Chen (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Development of Biomolecular Tools in addressing key global problems in Viral Infection, Disease pathogenesis, biofuel production, and separation of protein pharmaceutics

Learn more about Dr. Wilfred Chen’s Laboratory and Research group HERE.

Emily Day (BioMedical Engineering)

Interests: Engineering Nanoscale Materials with unique physical and chemical properties so that they can be used to transform the study, detection, and treatment of cancer.
Learn more about Dr. Day’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Charles Dhong (Materials Science and Engineering)

Interests: The Dhong lab measures or controls mechanical forces at biological interfaces, ranging from cells to the human sense of touch. We seek to develop new methods to control the sense of touch to create better tactile aids for people with low vision or blindness and develop platforms that can translate mechanical biomarkers for practical drug discovery or drug modeling

Learn more about Dr. Dhong’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Melinda Duncan (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Molecular mechanisms of ocular wound healing

Learn more about Dr. Duncan HERE.

Velia Fowler (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Red Blood Cell Shape, Red Blood Cell Formation, Eye Lens Function

Learn more about Dr. Fowler here.

Catherine Fromen (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Immune Engineering through Pulmonary Aerosol Delivery

Learn More about Dr. Fromen HERE.

Eric Furst (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Cytoskeletal Structure Function, Motor Protein Biophysics, and Tissue Engineering

Learn more about Dr. Furst’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Jason Gleghorn (BioMedical Engineering)

Interests: Mechanical and Chemical Regulation of Embryonic Organ Morphogenesis

Learn more about Dr. Gleghorn’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Thomas Hanson (College of Agriculture)

Interests: Microbial Biochemistry, Biogeochemistry, Genomics, and Proteomics

Learn more about Dr. Hanson HERE.

Austin Keeler (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Normal pain is essential to navigate a dangerous world – aberrant pain is debilitating. The Keeler lab explores how peripheral pain neurons, called nociceptors, develop and function in healthy and dysfunctional systems. We will use innovative tools, including a novel multiplexed single-cell, proteomic imaging platform and a rapid, cheap surgical method to generate genetic mouse models of human pain conditions, to learn about the formation of neuropathic pain.

Learn about Dr. Keeler’s Laboratory and Research HERE

Xinqiao Jia (Materials Science)

Interests: Novel Biomimetic Materials; Functional Biointerfaces; Tissue Engineering and Drug Delivery

Learn more about Dr. Jia’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Laure Kayser (Materials Science and Engineering)

Interests: designing, synthesizing, and understanding the next generation of soft organic electronic materials to study or repair the nervous system; interdisciplinary research team, working at the intersection of organometallic chemistry, polymer synthesis, and materials and device engineering

Learn more about Dr. Keyser and her research HERE.

April Kloxin (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Dynamic Biomaterials

Learn more about Dr. Kloxin’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

John Koh (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Bioorganic Chemistry and Chemical Biology of Nuclear and Steroid Hormone Receptors; Light-Activated Transcription

Learn more about Dr. Koh’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Aditya M. Kunjapur, PhD (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Synthetic biology using expanded biochemistry: Protein engineering via non-standard amino acids; metabolic engineering via unusual functional groups; selective proteolysis via engineered protein quality control.

Learn more about Dr. Kunjapur and his research HERE.

Aimee Jamarillo-Lambert (Biological Sciences)

Interests: genetic interactions between top-2 and meiotic chromosome components; role of TOP-2 in chromosome structure; the components required to regulate TOP-2 during meiosis.

Learn more about Dr. Jamarillo-Lambert and her research HERE

Salil Lachke (Biological Sciences)

Interests: RNA interactions in organ development

Learn more about Dr. Lachke’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Marco Messina (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

The Messina group’s research goals are to create functional (macro)molecular materials
to address long-standing challenges in human health and materials science. We are
interested in creating molecular tools that help us understand how cells use transient
analytes such as reactive oxygen/nitrogen species to communicate and how
miscommunication results in disease. We are also interested in creating new materials
using 3-dimensional boron-rich cluster compounds to enhance the stability of biologic
therapeutics (antibody-drug conjugates, vaccines, etc.), clinical specimens, and to
establish novel bioimaging agents.

Learn about Dr. Messina’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Ramona Neunuebel (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Molecular Mechanisms of Intracellular Bacterial Pathogens

Learn more about Dr. Neunuebel HERE.

Justin Parreno (Biological Sciences)

Interests: delineating the involvement of actin network reorganization in regulating articular cartilage and ocular lens biology and disease; vision is to develop novel actin-based therapeutics against disease..

Learn about Dr. Parreno’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Jodi Hadden-Perilla (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Currently focused on the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, the hepatitis B virus, the cytoplasmic dynein molecular motor, the role of carbohydrates and glycoconjugates in immunity and disease, and improving accessibility of the computational microscope for researchers who are blind.

Learn about Dr. Hadden-Perilla’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Tatyana Polenova (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Biophysics and Structural Biology of Protein Interfaces; Protein Assemblies, and Metallo-proteins; Biomolecular Solid-State NMR Spectroscopy

Learn more about Dr. Polenova HERE.

Christopher Roberts (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Protein Aggregation, Prediction of Protein Degradation and Shelf-life; Protein Preservation

Learn more about Dr. Roberts’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Sharon Rozovsky (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Function of Membrane Proteins; Lipid-Protein Interactions; Membrane Biophysics

Learn more about Dr. Rozovsky’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Karl Schmitz (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Structure, function, and regulation of Bacterial Proteases

Learn more about Dr. Schmitz HERE.

Kevin Solomon (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Study and engineering of environmental microbes for biopharmaceuticals, bioenergy, and sustainability; protein engineering of viral-like particles for bio templated nanomaterials synthesis; environmental microbiome engineering

Learn about Dr. Solomon’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Jia Song (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Regulatory roles of microRNAs in early development

Learn more about Dr. Song HERE.

Millicent Sullivan (Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

Interests: Design of Polymeric Materials for Improved Drug and Gene Transport; Engineering of Cell-Biomaterial Interactions

Learn more about Dr. Sullivan’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Molly Sutherland (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Molecular mechanisms of cytochrome c biogenesis; heme; membrane proteins; Microbiology

Learn about Dr. Sutherland’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Jessica Tanis (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Regulation of Ca2+ homeostasis in C. elegans

Learn more about Dr. Tanis HERE.

Donald Watson (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Organic Synthesis and Transition Metal Catalysis

Learn more about Dr. Donald Watson’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Mary Watson (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Catalytic Methods for Stereoselective Synthesis)

Learn more about Dr. Mary Watson’s Laboratory and Research HERE.

Shuo Wei (Biological Sciences)

Interests: Regulation of cell signaling by metalloproteinases in development and cancer

Learn more about Dr. Wei HERE.

Eric Wommack (Plant and Soil Sciences)

Interests: influence and importance of viral processes within natural ecosystems

Learn more about Dr. Wommack HERE.

Zhihao Zhuang (Chemistry and Biochemistry)

Interests: Mechanisms of Protein Machineries in DNA Damage Repair and Tolerance Pathways, particularly Regulation by PTM by Ubiquitination and Sumoylation

Learn more about Dr. Zhuang’s Laboratory and Research HERE.