Molecular Biophysics Faculty and Research

The Molecular Biophysics Graduate Program faculty have diverse backgrounds and interests, ranging from mathematics and theoretical physics to neurobiology and genetics.

Research in the Molecular Biophysics Graduate Program is highly interdisciplinary, comprising faculty drawn from the departments of Biophysics, Pharmacology, Physiology, Cell Biology, Neuroscience, Radiology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and others. A list of faculty with their research interests is given below.

Program Director

Research Interests: Research Interests: Integrating structure, kinetics, and computation to understand the molecular determinants and regulatory mechanisms of microtubule dynamics

Faculty

Research Interests: Cryo-EM studies of membrane protein complex in signaling transduction pathway

Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms of channels that gate in response to membrane tension

Research Interests: Structures and mechanisms of nuclear transport and the nuclear pore complex

Research Interests: Computational protein science, evolutionary genomics, machine learning, structural biology

Research Interests: Engineering proteins and nucleic acids for novel function

Research Interests: Autonomous Microscopy, Molecular Multiplexing, Optical Probe Development, and Content Rich Histopathology

Research Interests: Mechanisms of amyloid propagation in neurodegenerative diseases, especially tauopathies (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease), synucleinopathies (e.g. Parkinson’s disease), and polyglutamine diseases (e.g. Huntington’s disease); linkage between amyloid structure and biological impact

Research Interests: Structural and biochemical characterization of dynamic protein-RNA complexes during ribosome biogenesis

Research Interests: Protein folding and structure in cellular environments

Research Interests: Crystallographic studies of signal-transducing proteins

Research Interests: Computational biology; analysis of protein sequences and structures

Research Interests: Molecular mechanisms of membrane sculpting; formation and dynamics of inter-organelle membrane contact sites (MCSs) in human health and disease

Research Interests: Quantitative single-molecule imaging of receptor organization and signaling; linking molecular and cellular behavior across multiple scales; computational image analysis and data multiplexing

Research Interests: Structure and function of ion channels/transporters using X-ray protein crystallography, and electrophysiological tools

Research Interests: Molecular recognition in protein folding, chaperone structural biology, and neurodegeneration

Research Interests: Membrane Protein, Biochemistry, Structural Biology, Protein Homeostasis, Protein Degradation, Lipid Metabolism

Research Interests: Structural and biochemical characterization of membrane proteins in cholesterol biosynthesis, metabolism and signaling

Research Interests: Theoretical and computational approaches to predict protein folding and aggregation; evolutionary dynamics

Research Interests: Roles of chromatin and nuclear organization in transcriptional regulation; structural and biochemical studies of chromatin dynamics during transcriptional activation and repression

Research Interests: Mechanisms of protein folding, misfolding, and aggregation; Studying amyloid assembly and their heterotypic interactions with other cellular components, with a particular focus on neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease; Development of anti-amyloid inhibitors as novel therapeutics; Functional amyloids in organisms

Research Interests: Protein structure determination by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR); protein folding; cell cycle checkpoints and cancer

Research Interests: The analysis of metabolism in intact tissues by NMR spectroscopy; development of new methods to understand metabolic processes in functioning cells

Research Interests: Mechanisms of RNA-mediated gene regulation; Structural and biochemical studies of non-coding RNA function

Research Interests: Three-dimensional structures of biological molecules

Research Interests: Cellular organization and regulation of eukaryotic DNA replication initiation

Research Interests: Polyamine and pyrimidine metabolism in trypanosome and malaria parasites

Research Interests: Structure and mechanism of signaling pathways involved in development and cancer

Research Interests: Understanding how protein sensors measure levels of cholesterol in cell membranes

Research Interests: Biochemistry; biophysics; cell signaling, kinases, pseudokinases; Host-pathogen interaction; co-evolution; immunology; structural biology

Research Interests: Statistical analysis and rational design of cellular systems

Research Interests: Biophysical studies of the mechanisms of neurotransmitter release and intracellular membrane fusion

Research Interests: Structural, biochemical, and cell biological mechanisms of signal transduction that control the actin cytoskeleton

Research Interests: Structure and mechanism of integral membrane signaling proteins

Research Interests: Mechanisms of G-protein signaling; amplification, selectivity, response timing; structure/function of GTPase-activating proteins and associated receptors

Research Interests: Amyloid deposition,cardiac amyloidosis,cryo-electron microscopy,crystallography,rational and computational design,transthyretin amyloidosis

Research Interests: Structure of molecular assemblies in cells and neurons using 2D and 3D correlative cryo-EM

Research Interests: Mechanistic studies of volume sensors and mechanosensors, ion channel structure-function and related channelopathies

Research Interests: Antibiotic resistance and sensitivity; single molecule biophysics; synthetic biology

Research Interests: Single-molecule, fluorescence microscopy, RNA biochemistry, translational control of gene expression, mitochondrial translation

Research Interests: How ion channels and scaffolding proteins assemble into cellular signaling machineries

Research Interests: Live-cell microscopy, micro-rheology, and in vitro reconstitution to understand oocyte ageing, embryogenesis, and cancer onset

Research Interests: Biochemical and structural studies of regulation mechanisms for signaling proteins, especially receptor-mediated signaling pathways in neuron development and axonal guidance

Associate Members

These faculty members do not accept graduate students. They participate in teaching, co-mentoring, exam and dissertation committees, and all other program responsibilities.

Research Interests: Mechanisms of membrane fusion; role of lipids in membrane trafficking; membrane vesiculation of dynamin

Research Interests: Eukaryotic chromatin organization, mutational rates and spectra, biological signals and noise

Research Interests: Basic processes in living organisms at atomic level, using X-ray crystallography, analytical ultracentrifugation, isothermal titration calorimetry, and other biophysical techniques

Research Interests: Structural and functional studies of proteins in signal transduction

Research Interests: Single particle cryo-EM; X-ray crystallography; micro-ED; Structure-function relationship of proteins

Research Interests: Single particle cryo-EM; structural and functional studies of protein complexes in the nucleus and on the membrane

Research Interests: Cryo-EM; Structural and functional studies of proteins

Research Interests: Basic processes in living organisms at atomic level using X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, and other biophysical techniques