Our faculty

The Blackwell lab studies chemical communication between bacteria and develops chemical strategies to intercept these pathways

We are engineering enzymes to catalyze new reactions in vivo and studying their properties with kinetics, spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.

We study heme-mediated allosteric regulation in small molecule-sensing proteins using bioinorganic and biophysical techniques.

We explore the fundamental principles of protein folding and aggregation in the cell, focusing on the role of the ribosome, molecular chaperones and nascent-protein dynamics.

We develop and apply mass spectrometric technology to study human health.

The Denu lab is currently focused on understanding the molecular links between metabolism and epigenetic pathways in human health and age-associated diseases.

We study structures, functions, and mechanisms of bacterial proteins important for physiology and symbiosis using crystallography, microbiology, and (bio)chemical tools.

We develop ultra high-resolution mass spectrometry-based top-down proteomics and metabolomics technologies for cardiac systems biology and precision medicine.

We study the structures and functions of proteins and protein-inspired molecules.  Biology gives us the former; the latter we invent.

We study the molecular mechanisms of transporters and ion channels using NMR spectroscopy, functional assays, and chemical and biophysical tools

We are interested in understanding pre-mRNA splicing and post-transcriptional gene regulation using chemical, biological, and physical tools.

Research in the Keck lab examines the structural mechanisms that drive DNA replication, replication restart, recombination, and repair reactions.

The Li Lab is developing innovative mass spectrometric tools to advance neuroscience and pharmaceutical research and enable biomarker discovery via multi-omics approache

We design new types of smart and responsive soft materials, including polymers, surfactants, surfaces, and interfaces that interact with biological systems.

My group aims to develop hybrid synthetic/biological catalysts that mimic natural enzymes while exhibiting superior stability and chemical reactivity.

We integrate large-scale approaches with classical biochemistry/chemical biology to study the modulation and basic metabolic function of mitochondria.

We design small molecule biosensors for synthetic biology by computational protein design, multiplexed cell-based screening and deep sequencing.

We study RNA polymerase as a chemical and physical machine in transcription initiation, and study solute-solute interactions to interpret solute effects on protein processes.

We are interested in understanding the chemical forces that modulate the interactions of membrane proteins.

We develop powerful new mass spectrometic tools for the comprehensive elucidation of proteoforms and proteoform families in biological systems.

We are interested in developing new chemical reactions for carbohydrate synthesis and novel chemical tools to induce protein ubiquitination and subsequent degradation.

We are interested in using directed evolution to address the problem of protein misfolding and developing biosensors for antibiotic discovery/characterization.

We engineer enzymatic tools to enable spatially- and temporally-resolved mapping of cellular post-translational modifications using mass spectrometry.

Cutting-edge laser spectroscopy, such as 2D-IR spectroscopy and imaging, to advance difficult problems in biophysics and structural biology.