REU Faculty

SHARON AMACHER (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Zebrafish development; Oscillating RNAs and the segmentation clock; Muscle development, patterning, and regeneration; Muscle-specific splicing

CHUCK BELL (Biochemistry)
Focus: Using x-ray crystallography and cryo-EM to understand proteins involved in DNA repair and recombination

AMANDA BIRD (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Sensing of metal elements by eukaryotes; regulatory roles of novel RNAs and small proteins

HELEN CHAMBERLIN (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Organogenesis and cell fate specification during development. Developmental regulation of transcription

SUSAN COLE (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Roles of fringe genes and Notch signaling during development. Analysis of cyclic mRNA expression during somitogenesis: linking the Notch pathway and the segmentation clock

ANNA DOBRITSA (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Pattern formation and development of complex extracellular structures in plant cells

MARK P. FOSTER (Biochemistry)
Focus: Elucidation of structural and dynamic aspects of molecular recognition and assembly using a variety of biochemical and biophysical tools, with emphasis on NMR spectroscopy

VENKAT GOPALAN (Biochemistry)
Focus: Structure and mechanism of action of ribonuclease P, a catalytic ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex

PATRICE HAMEL (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Maturation of c-type cytochromes in organelles, redox components and heme delivery systems in yeast mitochondria and green alga plastids

PAUL HERMAN (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Mechanisms controlling eukaryotic cell growth and proliferation

ANITA HOPPER (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Intracellular trafficking of RNA and proteins; Nucleus organization; RNA processing

JAY HOLLICK (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Epigenetic mechanisms that generate and maintain heritable phenotypic variation

JANE JACKMAN (Biochemistry)
Focus: Mechanistic enzymology and genetic tools to elucidate the molecular mechanisms and functions of tRNA processing and modification enzymes

JESSE KWIEK (Microbiology)
Focus: Leveraging the tools of virology, epidemiology, and pharmacology to better understand viral pathogenesis and the public health impact of infectious diseases, including the development of pan-antiviral therapeutics

THOMAS MAGLIERY (Biochemistry)
Focus: Four helix bundle protein Rop and several tumor suppressor proteins, stability defects; vivo, site-specific unnatural protein mutagenesis

KARIN MUSIER-FORSYTH (Biochemistry)
Focus: Chemical and biophysical approaches to answer fundamental questions focusing on nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) and proteins that are involved in translation of the genetic code and viral replication

STEPHEN OSMANI (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Cell Cycle Regulation and Development

HAY-OAK PARK (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Regulation of Cell growth and oriented cell division; oxidative stress response

MICHAEL POIRIER (Biochemistry)
Focus: Understanding how DNA within chromatin is transcribed, replicated and repaired

NATIVIDAD RUIZ (Microbiology)
Focus: Understanding glycolipid transport systems that are essential for the biogenesis of the bacterial cell envelope

GURAMRIT SINGH (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Control of post-transcriptional gene expression via dynamic ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complexes

DAVID SOMERS (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: Molecular and genetic analysis of the plant circadian system

MARCOS SOTOMAYOR (Biochemistry)
Focus: Structural Biology and Simulations of Proteins Involved in Mechanosensation

JIAN-QIU WU (Molecular Genetics)
Focus: cell division, cellular polarization, cytoskeleton, microscopy, fission yeast

DAMIEN WILBURN (Biochemistry)
Focus: Evolutionary and biochemical characterization of sperm-egg interactions that mediate species-specific fertilization using NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry proteomics, and other biophysical methods

DONGPING ZHONG (Biochemistry)
Focus: Understanding the nature of elementary processes in biological systems and relating dynamics and structures to function in real systems at the most fundamental level, using state-of-the-art femtosecond lasers and molecular biology methods