|
TSRI Faculty Interests
Molecular Biology Baldwin, Kristin
studies the sense of smell by genetically visualizing the neural circuits of the mouse olfactory system and uses mouse cloning and stem cell technology to investigate the molecular mechanisms that govern neural circuit formation and function throughout the nervous system.
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.
Chang, Geoffrey
is interested in the structural basis of the transport of substrate across the cell membrane by ion channels and transporters; he determines the structures of such integral membrane proteins through high-resolution x-ray crystallography.
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.
Cunningham, Bruce
studies the detailed properties of cell surface glycoproteins that play critical roles in neural development, particularly cell adhesion molecules (CAMs), which bind cells together and generate signals that determine a cell's developmental destiny.
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.
Edelman, Gerald
examines several areas related to nervous system development and neural function, including cell-cell interactions during embyronic development, the role of cell adhesion molecules in neural plasticity, the molecular genetics of connectional defects in the nervous system, and transcriptional regulation and translational control in eukaryotic cells.
Elder, John
focuses on the molecular and biological characterization of feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), which causes an AIDS-like disease in the domestic cat and is similar to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); his goal is to develop drug treatments and vaccines that may be employed to treat viral infections in both humans and cats.
Fedor, Martha
investigates RNA enzymes using enzymological and biochemical methods to learn how RNAs assemble into functional structures and catalyze biological transformations.
Feeney, Ann
studies the epigenetic and genetic mechanisms that control the accessibility of antibody V, D, and J genes to undergo V(D)J recombination, determining why individual V genes rearrange with very different frequencies, and determining how the generation of the antibody repertoire and B cell tolerance mechanisms are misregulated in murine models of autoimmune disease
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.
Goodin, David
is focused on the rational engineering of metalloenzyme catalysts in order to better understand the chemical diversity of natural enzymes and to generate novel catalysts of potential utility.
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.
Kono, Dwight
is investigating the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus and mercury-induced autoimmunity as well as seeking to identify new potential therapeutic targets through novel approaches; his main interest is to define both predisposing genes and genes critical for disease development.
Kralli, Anastasia
focuses on the mechanism of action of nuclear receptor coactivators that modulate transcriptional responses to small lipophilic hormones and confer specificity to hormone signaling.
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.
Millar, David
uses single-molecule fluorescence and time-resolved laser spectroscopy to study the dynamics of enzyme-DNA interactions and the folding of catalytic RNA molecules.
Morris, Kevin
is interested in understanding the mechanism of long antisense non-coding RNA mediated transcriptional regulation in human cells in order to develop small antisense non-coding RNA based approaches to regulate HIV-1 and human cancer.
Mowen, Kerri
investigates the molecular events which control T helper cell and mast cell function, specifically studying a role for the posttranslational modification of arginine methylation by isolating novel substrates, determining the effects of arginine methylation on substrate function, and creating mice deficient in the enzymes that regulate arginine methylation.
Mueller, Ulrich
focuses on the genes and the gene mutations that contribute to the pathology of Usher syndrome, other human diseases related to mechanosensory perception, and central nervous system diseases
Nemazee, David
studies "receptor editing," a novel immunological tolerance mechanism in which developing B lymphocytes that carry autoreactive cell surface antibody are stimulated to "reprogram" their immunoglobulin genes by further rounds of DNA recombination.
Ollmann Saphire, Erica
combines x-ray crystallography, biochemistry, and immunology to analyse proteins that play key roles in the pathogenesis of Ebola and other viral hemorrhagic fevers; structures of these proteins provide templates for vaccine design and enable rapid responses to newly emerging forms of the viruses.
Otomo, Takanori
studies structure and function of proteins involved in the autophagic pathway.
Paulson, James
studies carbohydrate recognition and the molecular biology of carbohydrate binding proteins, like CD22, which mediate key aspects of cell signaling in the immune system.
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.
Saez, Enrique
is interested in two broad themes related to the regulation of energy balance in mammals.
Sauer, Karsten
We combine broad functional genomics approaches with traditional, hypothesis-driven research to identify and functionally characterize novel genes with important roles in lymphocyte development and function. A particular focus of the lab are signal transduction mechanisms downstream of the T cell receptor.
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.
Stowers, Lisa
studies the ligands, neurons, and brain nuclei that initiate social behavior using molecular genetics and genomics; her work is determining the rules that generate the information coding of neuronal networks.
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.
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.
Whitton, J. Lindsay
studies antiviral immunity mediated by the recognition of viral peptides by host cells, the basis of immunization with plasmid DNA vaccines, and the role of the immune system in viral pathogenesis during coxsackievirus infections.
Wittenberg, Curt
studies the role of cell cycle regulated transcription and proteolysis in cell cycle regulation via cyclin dependent protein kinases.
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.
Wuthrich, Kurt
develops advanced techniques in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and applies them in protein structural biology and structural genomics projects.
Xiao, Changchun
studies the functions of microRNA control and its underlying molecular mechanisms in the mammalian immune system, under health and disease conditions.
Zwick, Michael
dissects the molecular requirements of neutralization of HIV by antibodies, particularly those against the envelope glycoprotein, gp41; develops strategies for selecting HIV neutralizing antibodies and HIV envelope glycoprotein variants, to inform vaccine design.
|
