Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

2017-18 General Catalog

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Physical Sciences Building, Room 230
(831) 459-4002

Program Statement | Course Descriptions


Faculty and Professional Interests

James Ackman, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental  Biology
Brain circuit structure and function

Roger W. Anderson, Emeritus, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Manuel Ares Jr., Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental  Biology
Regulation of RNA processing, structure, function, and evolution of RNA-based systems

Alexander Ayzner, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Experimental physical chemistry; organic semiconductors; molecular spectroscopy; electron transfer dynamics; X-ray scattering and spectroscopy

Ilan Benjamin, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Theoretical chemistry, molecular dynamics of chemical reactions in liquids and at interfaces

Claude F. Bernasconi, Emeritus, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Needhi Bhalla, Associate Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Meiotic chromosome dynamics

Hinrich Boeger, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Chromatin dynamics and transcriptional regulation

Roberto A. Bogomolni, Emeritus, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Rebecca Braslau, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Synthetic organic chemistry: new synthetic methodologies using free radicals; nitroxides, nitroxide mediated "living" polymerizations: design and functionalization of tailored polymers for biomedical applications and nanotechnology, profluorescent nitroxides as sensors, synthetically modified polymers, development of non-migratory plasticizers

Susan Carpenter, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology
Long noncoding RNA and innate immunity

Bin Chen, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Mammalian brain development

Shaowei Chen, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Synthesis, characterization, and manipulation of novel functional nanomaterials (metals and semiconductors); surface engineering of nanoparticles; nanoscale electron transfer; applications in fuel cells, photocatalysis, photovoltaics, and nano optoelectronics.

Philip O. Crews, Research Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Ólöf Einarsdóttir, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Time-resolved spectroscopy; biophysics and bioenergetics; heme-copper oxidases; electron transfer and ligand binding; application of photolabile NO and 02 donors; molecular dynamics simulations of ligand access channels in heme-copper oxidases

David Feldheim, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Developmental neuroscience

Grant Hartzog, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Biochemistry, genetics, chromatin and transcriptional regulation

Lindsay Hinck, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Cellular interactions during organogenesis and tumorigenesis

Theodore R. Holman, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Biochemistry and bioinorganic chemistry; lipoxygenase enzymology, protein engineering, inhibitor discovery, computer inhibitor design, mass spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance

Melissa Jurica, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Structure and function of human splicing machinery

Rohinton T. Kamakaka, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Nuclear organization, Chromatin domains, Epigenetic gene regulation and Insulators

Douglas R. Kellogg, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Control of cell growth and size

David S. Kliger, Research Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Time-resolved laser spectroscopy, biophysics, studies of visual transduction, protein function, and protein folding

Joseph P. Konopelski, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Synthetic organic chemistry; heterocyclic chemistry, bioorganic chemistry

Jeremy Lee, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Molecular biology education and curriculum development; Drosphila models of neurodegeneration

Yat Li, Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Experimental physical chemistry, materials chemistry, nanomaterials, nanoscale photonics and electronics, energy conversion

R.Scott Lokey, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Organic chemistry; combinatorial synthesis, biotechnology, molecular cell biology

John MacMillan, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Natural products chemistry, chemical biology, structural elucidation, cancer biology, microbial natural products

Pradip Mascharak, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Bioinorganic chemistry, design of antitumor drugs, modeling of active sites of metalloenzymes, design of catalysts for hydrocarbon oxidation, studies on intermediates in non-heme oxygenase chemistry, design of NO-donors for photodynamic therapy

Glenn L. Millhauser, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Electron paramagnetic resonance; nuclear magnetic resonance, protein structure and function, peptide synthesis, prions, melanocortin signaling

Harry F. Noller, Research Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Ribosome structure and function; mechanisms of protein synthesis

Scott R. Oliver, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Materials chemistry: nanoporous inorganic and metal-organic materials for environmental cleanup of water, desulfurization of fueld and biomaterials

Carrie Partch, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Biochemistry and biophysics, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; molecular mechanism of circadian rhythmicity

Yuan Ping, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Theoretical and computational materials chemistry; solar energy conversion; electronic, optical and carrier transport properties of transition metal oxides and nanomaterials; heterogeneous catalysts; solid/liquid interfaces

Jevgenij Raskatov, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Chemical biology, organic chemistry, molecular modeling, chemotherapy, inflammation

Michael Rexach, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Structure and function of nuclear pore complex, nuclear transport

Seth M. Rubin, Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Biomolecular mechanisms of cell-cycle regulation and cancer; structural biology and biochemistry; macromolecular x-ray crystallography; nuclear magnetic resonance

Jeremy Sanford, Associate Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Genomic analysis of protein-RNA interactions

William M. Saxton, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Cytoskeletal motors and active transport processes

Thomas W. Schleich, Emeritus, Chemistry and Biochemistry

William G. Scott, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Structure and function of RNA, proteins, and their complexes, origin of life

Nikolaos Sgourakis, Assistant Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Modeling protein complexes from sparse NMR data; hybrid methods in structural biology; antigen processing and presentation; viral immune regulation mechanisms

Bakthan Singaram, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Organic synthesis, organoborane chemistry, heterocyclic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, asymmetric synthesis, biosensors, and natural products chemistry

Michael Stone, Associate Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Molecular basis of telomere length and telomerase-related diseases; biophysical characterization of nucleic acid-associated molecular motors; development of novel approaches for imaging enzymes in cells

Susan Strome, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Epigenetic regulation of germ cells in C. elegans

William T. Sullivan, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Cell cycle, cytoskeleton, and host-pathogen interactions

Eugene Switkes, Emeritus, Chemistry and Biochemistry

John W. Tamkun, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental  Biology
Transcriptional regulation, molecular genetics of Drosophila development, regulation of gene expression

Zhu Wang, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental  Biology
Prostate development and cancer, tissue stem cell

Jordan Ward, Assistant Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Probing C. elegans development, cellular differentiation, and parasitic disease

W. Todd Wipke, Emeritus, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Alan M. Zahler, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Alternative pre-mRNA splicing and small RNA function

Jin Z. Zhang, Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Design, synthesis, characterization, and application of nanomaterials, including semiconductors, metals, and metal oxides; ultrafast dynamics and laser spectroscopy; cancer diagnosis and therapy; solar energy conversion; surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).

Martha C. Zúñiga, Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology
Negative selection of autoreactive T cells in the thymus and in peripheral lymphoid organs, immunological tolerance to epithelial antigens, MHC transfer between keratinocytes and dendritic cells

Yi Zuo , Professor, Molecular, Cell, and Developmental  Biology
Synaptic plasticity in learning and memory

Revised: 09/01/17