Department: Biochemistry

• Faculty (24)
• Postdocs (38)
• All

B

• 
  Baldwin, Robert L
  Academic Appointments

  • Emeritus Faculty, Acad Council, Biochemistry
  Research Interest

  I closed my laboratory when I retired in 1998. I continue to do research, chiefly in collaboration with Franc Avbelj, on problems of protein folding energetics, especially peptide backbone solvation, and to write reviews.

• 
  Berg, Paul 
  Academic Appointments

  • Emeritus (Active) Professor, Biochemistry
  • Emeritus Faculty, Acad Council, Biochemistry
  Research Interest

  For about 10 years until 2000, my lab’s research activities were focused on the mechanism of recombinational repair of double-strand breaks in DNA. We focused our efforts on two model systems: one involved the repair of restriction enzyme cleavages at specific mammalian chromosomal loci and the second explored the biochemical properties of purified yeast Rad51 protein, an essential catalyst for synapsing the broken ends of DNA with an intact homologue of that sequence. We also explored the ro..

• 
  Brown, Patrick 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Biochemistry
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  Dr. Brown's research group uses diverse experimental and computational methods to investigate the logic and mechanisms that control a genome's expression program. The Brown laboratory is systematically characterizing the genetic scripts that control the expression of our genes, in normal development and physiology and in diseases like cancer, with a particular focus on post-transcriptional regulation. The Brown lab also develops strategies and assays for early detection and diagnosis of cancer.

C

• 
  Chu, Gilbert 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Medicine - Oncology
  • Professor, Biochemistry
  • Member, Bio-X
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Clinical Focus

  • Oncology
  Research Interest

  Our laboratory focuses on understanding how cells respond to DNA damage. Our research currently involves areas that interact with each other: repair of radiation damage, and transcriptional responses to DNA damage.

D

• 
  Das, Rhiju 
  Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Biochemistry
  Research Interest

  Rhiju Das strives to predict how sequence codes for structure in proteins, nucleic acids, and heteropolymers whose folds have yet to be explored. The Das group uses new computational and experimental tools to tackle the de novo modeling of protein and RNA folds, the high-throughput structure mapping of riboswitches and random RNAs, and the design of self-knotting and self-crystallizing nucleic acids.

• 
  Davis, Ronald 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Biochemistry
  • Professor, Genetics
  • Member, Bio-X
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  We are using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Human to conduct whole genome analysis projects. The yeast genome sequence has approximately 6,000 genes. We have made a set of haploid and diploid strains (21,000) containing a complete deletion of each gene. In order to facilitate whole genome analysis each deletion is molecularly tagged with a unique 20-mer DNA sequence. This sequence acts as a molecular bar code and makes it easy to identify the presence of each deletion.

• 
  Desai, Tushar 
  Academic Appointments

  • Instructor, Biochemistry
  • Instructor, Medicine - Pulmonary & Critical Care Med
  Clinical Focus

  • Pulmonary Critical Care
  • Pulmonary Disease
  Research Interest

  I am studying lung development, in particular the regulation of alveolar epithelial type I and II cell differentiation.

F

• 
  Ferrell, James 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Chemical and Systems Biology
  • Professor, Biochemistry
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  My lab has two main goals: to understand mitotic regulation and to understand the systems-level logic of simple signaling circuits. We often make use of Xenopus laevis oocytes, eggs, and cell-free extracts for both sorts of study. We also carry out single-cell fluorescence imaging studies on mammalian cell lines.

G

• 
  Greif, Daniel 
  Academic Appointments

  • Instructor, Biochemistry
  Clinical Focus

  • Cardiovascular Disease
  • Cardiovascular Medicine

H

• 
  Harbury, Pehr 
  Academic Appointments

  • Associate Professor, Biochemistry
  • Member, Bio-X
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  Our lab engineers proteins and small-molecule drugs at atomic resolution through a combination of structural calculations and combinatorial library synthesis. Our goal is to elucidate predictive principles by which novel shapes and catalytic properties can be conferred accurately on designed polypeptides.

• 
  Herschlag, Daniel 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Biochemistry
  • Professor (By courtesy), Chemical Engineering
  • Professor (By courtesy), Chemistry
  • Member, Bio-X
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  Our research is aimed at understanding the chemical and physical behavior underlying biological macromolecules and systems, as these behaviors define the capabilities and limitations of biology. Toward this end we study folding and catalysis by RNA, as well as catalysis by protein enzymes.

• 
  Hogness, David S
  Academic Appointments

  • Emeritus Faculty, Acad Council, Biochemistry
• 
  Huang, Kerwyn C
  Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
  • Assistant Professor (By courtesy), Electrical Engineering
  • Assistant Professor (By courtesy), Biochemistry

K

• 
  Kaiser, A 
  Academic Appointments

  • Emeritus (Active) Professor, Biochemistry
  Research Interest

  How are genes regulated to construct a developmental program? How do signals received from other cells change the program and coordinate it for multicellular development? The approach taken by our laboratory group to answer these questions utilizes biochemistry and genetics; genetics to isolate mutants that have particular defects in development and biochemistry to determine the molecular basis of the defects. We study fruiting body development in Myxococcus xanthus, a social bacterium.

• 
  Khosla, Chaitan 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Chemical Engineering Operations
  • Professor (By courtesy), Biochemistry
  • Professor, Chemistry
• 
  Kornberg, Arthur 
  Academic Appointments

  • Emeritus Faculty, Acad Council, Biochemistry
  Research Interest

  We aim to understand the biochemical and genetic basis for the numerous physiologic functions of inorganic polyphosphate, a polymer of hundreds of phosphate residues found in every cell in Nature.

• 
  Krasnow, Mark 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Biochemistry
  • Member, Bio-X
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  Genetic and molecular basis of respiratory system development, maintenance, and disease in Drosophila, mouse, and human

L

• 
  Lehman, I 
  Academic Appointments

  • Emeritus (Active) Professor, Biochemistry
  Research Interest

  We study Herpes simplex virus type 1 as a model eukaryotic chromosome for the analysis of eukaryotic DNA replication and recombination

• 
  Long, Sharon 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Biology (School of Humanities and Sciences)
  • Professor (By courtesy), Biochemistry

P

• 
  Pfeffer, Suzanne 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Biochemistry
  • Member, Bio-X
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  The goal of our research is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms by which proteins are targeted to specific membrane compartments. How do transport vesicles select their contents, bud, translocate through the cytoplasm, and then fuse with their targets? We study the Ras-like Rab GTPases--how they are localized to distinct intracellular compartments in human cells, and how they serve as master regulators of all receptor trafficking events.

R

• 
  Rohatgi, Rajat 
  Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Medicine - Oncology
  • Assistant Professor (By courtesy), Biochemistry
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Clinical Focus

  • Internal Medicine
  Research Interest

  We are working to elucidate the biochemical and cell biological principles that govern signaling pathways that sit at the intersection between developmental biology and cancer. Our toolkit combines bulk biochemical techniques, such as cell-free reconstitution, with microscopy using novel optical probes to study the dynamics of signal propagation in cells. We strive to develop novel strategies for the manipulation of these pathways for cancer therapies and applications in regenerative medicine.

S

• 
  Spudich, James 
  Academic Appointments

  • Professor, Biochemistry
  • Professor, Developmental Biology
  • Member, Bio-X
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  The general research interest of this laboratory is the molecular basis of cell motility. We have three specific research interests, the molecular basis of energy transduction that leads to ATP-driven myosin movement on actin, the biochemical basis of the regulation of actin and myosin interaction and their assembly states, and the roles these proteins play in vivo, in cell movement and changes in cell shape.

• 
  Straight, Aaron F
  Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor, Biochemistry
  • Member, Bio-X
  • Member, Cancer Center
  Research Interest

  We study the process of cell division. Our research is focused on understanding how chromosomes are segregated during mitosis and how cells divide during cytokinesis.

T

• 
  Theriot, Julie 
  Academic Appointments

  • Associate Professor, Biochemistry
  • Associate Professor, Microbiology & Immunology
  Research Interest

  We study the interactions between infectious bacteria and the human host cell actin cytoskeleton. Listeria monocytogenes and Shigella flexneri are unrelated food-borne bacterial pathogens that share a common mechanism of invasion and actin-dependent intercellular spread in epithelial cells. Our studies fall into three broad areas: the biochemical basis of actin-based motility by these bacteria, the biophysical mechanism of force generation, and the evolutionary origin of pathogenesis.