The Biochemistry faculty has a wide range of research interests from cell biology to molecular biophysics. Primary faculty have their main affiliation with the Department of Biochemistry and are based within the department. This includes faculty members in the Center for RNA Science and Therapeutics. Secondary faculty have their main affiliation with other departments or centers. Students can thus work in virtually any field in current biomedical research.
Primary Faculty
| Faculty Member | Area of Research |
|---|---|
| Ryan Arvidson | Bioinformatics-based approaches to understanding nervous system circuitry and signaling. |
| Kaixiang Cao | Elucidating mechanisms underlying stem cell differentiation and mammalian development with genetic, epigenetic, and genomic approaches. |
| J. Alan Diehl | Cell cycle regulation and ubiquitin-dependent protein degradation; integrated stress response and ncRNAs in regulation of the circadian clock and tumorigenesis. |
| Leah Gates | Mechanisms of metabolite signaling to chromatin, gene regulation, and intestinal cell biology in health and disease. |
| Thomas Gerken | Biosynthesis of O-linked glycans. |
| Jonatha Gott | Mechanistic studies of RNA editing in Physarum mitochondria. |
| Nathan Howell | Specificity of tRNA modifying enzymes |
| Christopher Hubert | Development of more effective treatments for advanced brain tumors using advanced, 3- dimensional and patient-directed models to study the brain tumor cell community with single-cell resolution. |
| Hung-Ying Kao | Mechanisms controlling signaling networks and gene expression in breast cancer. |
| Tae Hun Kim | Investigating changes in chromatin structure and function, DNA damage repair, transcription regulation, and epigenetic modifications induced by transcription factors, DNA damage response proteins, and drugs, using multidisciplinary approaches and studying "liquid-liquid phase separation" modulation of transcription and DNA damage repair. |
| Xiao Li | RNA systems biology in precision medicine |
| Xin Liu | Investigating the interactions between metabolism and innate immune response in the settings of lung infection and cancer. |
| Joseph Luna | Systems biology of RNA virus infections, RNA sensing and metabolism |
| William C. Merrick | Mechanism and regulation of eukaryotic protein biosynthesis. |
| William P. Schiemann | Molecular mechanisms of breast cancer metastasis, metastatic dormancy, and metastastic relapse |
| Boaz Tirosh | Stress signaling in cancer and immunity |
| Focco van den Akker | Structure-function and inhibitor design studies to combat antibiotic resistance. |
| Susan Wang | Mechanistic studies of radical S-adenosyl-L-methionine enzymes. |
| Vivien C. Yee | Structure-function studies of enzymes and prion proteins using X-ray crystallography. |
| Yi Zhang | Molecular basis of cellular pathways important for human health and disease biology, including selective autophagy, chromatin regulation and dynamics, and biomolecular condensates. |