Protein Engineering Folding and Design
A major technological goal of modern biology is to generate proteins with new and improved properties. In addition to deepening our understanding of the physical and chemical mechanisms that underlie protein function, the ability to confer a desired activity on a protein or enzyme has considerable practical application in the medical, chemical and agricultural world. Investigators in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology are developing computational and experimental tools that are used to design proteins with novel activities.
Bezanilla, Francisco - ProfessorBiophysics and dynamics of ion channels
Dawson, Glyn - ProfessorStudies sphingolipid signalling pathways and programmed cell death in brain and tumors. Focus on ceramide and the pathways it regulates such as PI3K. Use of quantum dots coated with chaperones as therapy vehicles for inherited lysosomal storage diseases resulting point mutations in Batten genes
Getz, Godfrey - ProfessorStructure and function of apolipoproteins in lipoprotein assembly, and in atherosclerosis and Alzheimers disease pathogenesis.
Greene, Geoffrey - ProfessorSteroid hormone regulation of gene networks in reproductive tissues and cancers. Structure and function of nuclear receptors.
Keenan, Robert - Associate ProfessorStructural biology and directed evolution.
Kent, Stephen - ProfessorChemical protein synthesis. Application of chemistry to the study of proteins. Mechanism of enzyme catalysis.
Koide, Shohei - ProfessorProtein design. Protein-protein interaction. Signaling network. Epigenetics. Structural biology. Synthetic biology.
Kossiakoff, Anthony - ProfessorStructure and function of hormone-receptor interactions, enzyme-inhibitor interfaces, and synthetic proteins.
Makinen, Marvin - ProfessorElectron magnetic resonance; enzyme mechanisms; metalloenzymes; molecular dynamics; structural basis of enzyme action.
Meredith, Stephen - ProfessorProtein aggregation and amyloid fibril structure; peptide synthesis; lipoprotein structure.
Moffat, Keith - ProfessorTime-resolved macromolecular crystallography; photoreceptors; design and engineering of light-sensitive proteins
Perozo, Eduardo - ProfessorStructure and Dynamics of Ion Channels and transporters
Rock, Ronald - Associate ProfessorMolecular motors; cytoskeletal organization; single-molecule biophysics
Roux, Benoit - ProfessorTheoretical and computational studies of the structure, dynamics and function of biological macromolecular systems.
Sosnick, Tobin - ProfessorProtein and RNA/ribozyme folding; design of light-sensitive allosteric proteins; structure prediction, biological dynamics and thermodynamics as basis for understanding function.