TSRI Faculty Interests

Cancer

Baran, Phil  
explores new avenues for the efficient and practical construction of organic molecules, both naturally occurring and man-made, by pursuing longstanding synthetic challenges and by designing methods of broad utility.

Barbas III, Carlos  
designs zinc finger protein-based transcription factors for the directed regulation of gene expression and gene discovery; programs complex reaction mechanisms into antibodies and uses them to treat cancer; develops new approaches to catalytic asymmetric synthesis; and uses phage display methods to evolve antibodies with the potential to become new immunotherapeutic and gene therapeutic approaches to diseases like breast and ovarian cancer, melanoma, and AIDS.

Boger, Dale  
works on the total synthesis of biologically active natural products using the tools of organic synthesis to identify, imitate, understand, exploit, and sometimes surpass what nature provides.

Bokoch, Gary  
studies the control and integration of cellular activities initiated by GTP-binding proteins, seeking to determine how GTP-binding proteins function, how they are regulated at the molecular level, and how this regulation may be abnormal in various disease states.

Chun, Jerold  
is interested in the study of lysophospholipid signaling in neural and systems biology, chromosomal aneuploidy in the nervous system, and disease related studies with a Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience approach.

Cravatt, Benjamin  
studies the action and regulation of chemical messengers, particularly the fatty acid amides, which mediate physiological phenomena like pain sensation, sleep, and thermoregulation; he designs and uses chemical probes for "active site proteomics," the global analysis of protein function.

Dickerson, Tobin  
develops biochemical technologies for predicting and treating evolving disease such as influenza, hepatitis C, and cancer, high-throughput screening paradigms for protein-ligand agonists/antagonists, combating filarial parasites, and the modulation of botulinum neurotoxin.

Ding, Sheng  
is applying arrayed large-scale chemical, cDNA, and siRNA libraries and novel high throughput cellular screens to identify and characterize small molecules and genes that can control stem cell fate in various embryonic and adult stem cell systems and modulate specific signaling pathways in development and regeneration.

Felding-Habermann, Brunhilde  
establishes unique models of brain metastasis from circulating tumor cells of breast cancer patients and analyzes their properties in vitro and in vivo, investigates genes and functional pathways that control metastatic activity.

Finn, M.G.  
uses viruses as building blocks for biologically active structures, diagnostic agents, immunogenic platforms, and drug delivery vehicles; and also develops new bioconjugation methods, enzyme inhibitors, and functional materials using "click chemistry," and studies organic and organometallic reaction mechanisms.

Fowler, Velia  
studies the role of actin dynamics in regulating assembly and function of cytoskeletal structures that contribute to cell and tissue morphogenesis during embryonic development. Systems of interest include morphogenesis of epithelia, the eye lens, differentiation and stability of erythrocytes, and striated muscle development.

Friedlander, Martin  
examines the mechanisms whereby proteins are asymmetrically integrated into cell membranes and studies the basic mechanisms of ocular angiogenesis and potential therapeutic applications for treating degenerative retinal and neovascular eye diseases.

Gerace, Larry  
seeks to understand the mechanisms for regulation of signaling and cell differentiation by components of the nuclear envelope, particularly in regard to muscle, and the machinery for posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression by nucleocytoplasmic transport, mRNA translation and protein turnover, with focus on HIV-1.

Ghadiri, M.Reza  
develops novel methods for the rational design and construction of functional and interesting bioorganic molecules, such as novel antimicrobial agents, catalytic peptides, biosensors, self-replicating systems, and molecular logic gates.

Gottesfeld, Joel  
is concerned with protein-DNA interactions involved in the transcriptional regulation in animal cells and the development of small molecule inhibitors and activators of gene expression.

Havran, Wendy  
studies a unique subset of T lymphocytes, called "gamma-delta" T cells, which reside in epithelial tissues, are derived from fetal precursors, express a tissue-specific, invariant antigen receptor, and are involved in tissue repair as well as epithelial inflammatory diseases such as asthma and ulcerative colitis.

Janda, Kim  
Investigates biological catalysts, development of methods for the detection of and protection against chemical/biological warfare agents, combinatorial chemical libraries, synthesis and evaluation of enzyme inhibitors, solid-phase organic synthesis, quorum sensing within bacterial systems, lead discovery and detection strategies for tropical diseases, antibody/peptide phage display libraries, cell-penetrating peptides as therapeutic delivery vehicles, and the application of immunopharmacotherapy in the treatment of drug addiction, cancer and obesity.

Joyce, Gerald  
studies the test-tube evolution of RNA and DNA enzymes, both to explore their potential biomedical applications and to examine their possible role in the early history of life on Earth.

Lazzerini Denchi, Eros  
focuses on the mechanisms that protect chromosome ends and their deregulation in human pathologies such as cancer and aging

MacRae, Ian  
combines structural biology, biochemistry and cell biology to understand mechanisms of gene regulation by RNA interference.

Mc Gowan, Clare  
examines the molecular mechanisms and players that regulate the human cell cycle, focusing on DNA damage checkpoints and DNA repair enzymes like Mus81, which resolves strands of duplex DNA that become crossed during replication.

Milligan, Ronald  
uses cryo-electron microscopy and image analysis to study the structure and mechanism of action of large molecular machines such as actomyosin, kinesin-microtubules, MAPs-microtubles, VCP/p97 and dynein AAA ATPases, various membrane channels and transporters, and bacterial toxins.

Nicolaou, K.C.  
works on the total synthesis of biologically active natural and designed molecules and the discovery and development of new synthetic strategies and technologies.

Noodleman, Louis  
uses quantum chemistry and protein electrostatics to investigate the electronic structures and active site mechanisms of redox metalloproteins, such as respiratory iron-sulfur proteins, the nitrogen fixing nitrogenase enzyme, and the iron-oxo dimer enzymes methane monooxygenase and ribonucleotide reductase.

Quigley, James  
uses in vivo models, directed enzyme inhibitors and specific function-blocking antibodies to identify pathways and molecules which contribute to tumor metastasis and angiogenesis.

Reed, Steven  
focuses on the regulation of cell cycle progression through cyclin-dependent kinases and related proteins, particularly the role of regulated proteolysis in cell cycle control and how defects in the proteolytic machinery can promote carcinogenesis.

Romesberg, Floyd  
seeks to understand and evolve novel protein function by expanding the genetic code, to understand the molecular basis of DNA damage, repair, and mutagenesis, and to use femtosecond laser pulses to probe protein dynamics.

Russell, Paul  
studies DNA damage response mechanisms that are relevant to the prevention and treatment of cancer; investigates how cells tolerate exposure to environmental toxins.

Schmid, Sandra  
is defining the molecular mechanisms of receptor-mediated endocytosis, which involves the concentration of receptor-ligand complexes into clathrin coated pits, their internalization via coated vesicles, and the regulation of these events by GTPases and kinases.

Schork, Nicholas  
focuses on the development and implementation of analysis methods for understanding the genetic determinants of complex human traits and diseases such as cancer, neuropsychiatric disease, and cardiovascular disease. These methods focus on both the design, integration, and interpretation of studies making use of contemporary high throughput genomic technologies.

Sharpless, K. Barry 
discovers new and useful transformations for organic synthesis, particularly employing inorganic catalysts and olefin-derived compounds of high reactivity; he also applies "in situ" click chemistry, which makes enzymes into reaction vessels and templates for the formation of their own inhibitors.

Sherman, Linda  
looks at the immune system's basic strategy of discriminating between "self" and "non-self" through T lymphocytes, seeking to augment their ability to respond to certain self-antigens on tumor cells and to diminish their aberrant destruction of self-tissue in autoimmune diseases.

Stevens, Raymond  
uses crystallography and biochemistry to probe the structure and function of molecules involved in neurotransmission and neurochemistry, seeking to understand how neuronal cells communicate at the molecular level and to create new molecules that affect neuronal signal transduction and recognition.

Sun, Peiqing  
seeks to delineate the signal transduction pathways mediating cellular responses to oncogenic mutations, and to systematically search for genetic alterations that contribute to specific cancer-associated phenotypes by screening cDNA expression libraries and siRNA libraries.

Tainer, John  
develops and applies advanced tools for high-impact structural biology including combined x-ray scattering in solution and x-ray crystallography on complexes at his synchrotron beamline to bridge from complexes and conformations to pathways and phenotypes by characterizing macromolecular machines, novel inhibitors, and the molecular basis for diseases and intervention strategies.

Theofilopoulos, Argyrios  
works on the identification of predisposing and effector genes in systemic autoimmunity, as exemplified in spontaneous mouse models of lupus. Both forward (phenotype → genes) and reverse (gene → phenotype) approaches are used and several genes that promote (type I and II IFNs) or suppress (coronin 1A) this disease have thus far been identified.

Torbett, Bruce  
studies transcriptional regulation of myeloid development and function, develops and tests novel techniques for delivering genes to cells to provide protection against HIV or cancer; he also investigates how the structural changes in HIV protease contribute to biochemical functions that confer protease inhibitor resistance.

Wittenberg, Curt  
studies the role of cell cycle regulated transcription and proteolysis in cell cycle regulation via cyclin dependent protein kinases.

Wong, Chi-Huey  
directs his research towards the development of new chemical-enzymatic strategies for the synthesis of biologically active compounds and chiral intermediates; the design and synthesis of mechanism-based inhibitors of enzymes or receptors; the study of carbohydrate-based biological recognition and its intervention; and the investigation of reaction mechanisms.

Wright, Peter  
uses high-resolution, multi-dimensional, hetero-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to study protein dynamics, folding, and recognition, particularly of structures of protein-DNA and protein-protein complexes involved in the regulation of transcription.

Xiao, Changchun  
studies the functions of microRNA control and its underlying molecular mechanisms in the mammalian immune system, under health and disease conditions.