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Faculty Research Interests

David Amberg
Research Interests:

Regulation of actin dynamics and analysis of genomic influences on actin function.

Alaji Bah
Alaji Bah, PhD
Assistant Professor
Research Interests:

Elucidate the structure, dynamics and functions of intrinsically disordered proteins and protein regions (IDPs/IDRs) and their biological regulation by Post-translational modifications.

Audrey Bernstein
Research Interests:

Fibrosis; Scarring; Protein degradation; ubiquitin; integrins; cytoskeleton; patient-derived model systems

Dimitra Bourboulia
Dimitra Bourboulia, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

  • Extracellular kinase signaling
  • Extracellular chaperone function 
  • Targeting extracellular signaling networks in urological cancers

Peter Calvert
Research Interests:

Molecular mechanisms of protein transport and localization in retinal neurons; mechanisms of retinal degenerative diseases

Xin Jie Chen
Xin Jie Chen, PhD
Distinguished Professor
Research Interests:

Mitochondrial biology, stress signaling and aging-related degenerative diseases.

Michael Cosgrove
Research Interests:

Epigenetic regulation of chromatin, Mixed Lineage Leukemia, Structural Biology, Enzymology, Biophysical Chemistry, Rational drug design

Thomas Duncan
Thomas Duncan, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

F-type ATP synthases; bioenergetics of pathogenic bacteria; enzymology; structural biology, membrane protein function.

Wenyi Feng
Wenyi Feng, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

Chromosomal DNA replication origins (location, timing and regulation), replication fork integrity and checkpoint regulation, genomic instability and chromosome fragility in both the yeast and human genome

Diana Gilligan
Diana Gilligan, MD/PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

My research includes studies of the role of microRNA in development of leukemia.

Steven Hanes
Research Interests:

Gene expression in development and disease, RNA pol II regulation, homeobox genes, prolyl isomerases

Patricia Kane
Patricia Kane, PhD
Distinguished Teaching Professor
Research Interests:

Vacuolar H+ATPases (structure, function, assembly and regulation), cellular pH homeostasis, cellular stress responses, protein sorting, genomics, yeast as a model system

William Kerr
Research Interests:

My research is primarily focused on defining the role of SHIP1 in immunity, obesity, stem cell biology and cancer. This research has revealed that SHIP1 is at the nexus of signaling pathways that regulate: (1) hematopoietic and mesenchymal stem cell homeostasis, (2) terminal differentiation of myeloid cells, (3) acute BM graft rejection, (4) survival of T cells in the small intestine and (5) survival of hematologic cancer cells. More recently we developed SHIP1 and pan-SHIP1/2 inhibitors and showed they can expand stem cells in vivo, reverse obesity, eradicate certain cancers and boost tumor immunity. We are also attempting to better understand what LRBA does in immune cells. LRBA is a scaffold protein that coordinates intracellular vesicle trafficking with receptor signaling.

Barry Knox
Barry Knox, PhD
Professor
Research Interests:

Visual transduction, Gene Expression, Membrane proteins

Bruce Knutson
Bruce Knutson, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

RNA polymerase I transcription (structure, assembly, regulation), nucleolar biology, macromolecular architecture, crosslinking, proteomics, bioinformatics, modeling, molecular genetics, biochemistry, model systems

Leszek Kotula
Leszek Kotula, MD/PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

Cancer biology, cell signaling, the role of actin cytoskeleton in tumor progression, mouse models of cancer

Vladimir Kuznetsov
Research Interests:

Cancer systems biology, bioinformatics, big data and survival prediction analyses, predictive and personalized medicine, computational genome and transcriptome biology, non-B DNA structures, RNA:DNA hybrids, R-loops, G-quadruplexes, ncRNAs, clinical biomarker discovery and validation

Stewart Loh
Research Interests:

Protein engineering, design, and folding

Frank Middleton
Research Interests:

  • Genetic, epigenetic, and neuroanatomical basis of neurological and psychiatric disorders
  • Basal ganglia and cerebellar circuitry in normal and disease states
  • Neural-immune and gut-brain interactions
  • Machine learning approaches for biomarker discovery
  • Next generation sequencing for multiomic data analysis (genome, transcriptome, microbiome, methylome) 

Mehdi Mollapour
Research Interests:

Role of molecular chaperone Hsp90 in cancers

Kidney Cancer, Bladder Cancer, Breast Cancer

Tuberous Sclerosis Complex syndrome (TSC)

Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome (BHD)

 

Andras Perl
Andras Perl, MD, PhD
Distinguished Professor
Research Interests:

Genes and Viruses Predisposing to Autoimmunity, Genetics, Apoptosis, Endogenous Retroviruses, Transaldolase

Francesca Pignoni
Francesca Pignoni, PhD
Professor and Chair
Research Interests:

Neurogenesis; Retinal Progenitor Cells Specification and Proliferation; Genetic Control of Stem Cell Identity and Maintenance; Disease Genes Analysis in Drosophila

David Pruyne
David Pruyne, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

Understanding how muscle cells organize their actin cytoskeleton into efficient contractile units, using a combination of in vitro biochemistry, and analysis of cultured muscle cells and genetic models C. elegans and zebrafish.

Jessica Ridilla
Jessica Ridilla, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

  • Regulation of actin filament polymerization
  • Mechanisms of actin-microtubule crosstalk
  • Role of actin and microtubules in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
  • Single-molecule super-resolution microscopy techniques (i.e. TIRF, STED, STORM).
 

Mark Schmitt
Research Interests:

Ribonucleoprotein assembly and biogenesis; mitochondrial RNA import, mRNA degradation, cell cycle control

Andrea Viczian
Andrea Viczian, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

Mammalian retinal stem cells formation; molecular mechanism of retinal cell fate decisions; vascular development in the CNS; using cell replacement therapy to heal the blinded eye.

Stephan Wilkens
Stephan Wilkens, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

Structure and Mechanism of Membrane Bound Transport Proteins

Michael Zuber
Michael Zuber, PhD
Associate Professor
Research Interests:

The molecular basis of retinal stem cell formation; regulating retinal stem/progenitor cell proliferation; using retinal stem/progenitor cells to heal the injured or degenerating retina.

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