Our faculty

Helen Blackwell

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: blackwell@chem.wisc.edu

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

Andrew Buller

Credentials: Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: arbuller@wisc.edu

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

Judith Burstyn

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: burstyn@chem.wisc.edu

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

Silvia Cavagnero

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: cavagnero@chem.wisc.edu

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.

Josh Coon

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: jcoon@chem.wisc.edu

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

John Denu

Credentials: Professor, Department of Biomolecular Chemistry

Email: john.denu@wisc.edu

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

Katrina Forest

Credentials: Professor, Bacteriology and Biophysics

Email: forest@bact.wisc.edu

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

Ying Ge

Credentials: Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: ying.ge@wisc.edu

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

Samuel Gellman

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: gellman@chem.wisc.edu

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

Katherine Henzler-Wildman

Credentials: Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry

Email: henzlerwildm@wisc.edu

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

Aaron Hoskins

Credentials: Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry

Email: ahoskins@wisc.edu

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

James Keck

Credentials: Professor, Department of Biomolecular Chemistry

Email: jlkeck@wisc.edu

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

Lingjun Li

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry and School of Pharmacy

Email: lingjun.li@wisc.edu

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

David Lynn

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: david.lynn@wisc.edu

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

Jeffrey Martell

Credentials: Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: jdmartell@wisc.edu

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

Dave Pagliarini

Credentials: Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry

Email: DPagliarini@morgridge.org

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

Vatsan Raman

Credentials: Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry

Email: sraman4@wisc.edu

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

M. Thomas Record

Credentials: Professor, Department of Biochemistry

Email: mtrecord@wisc.edu

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.

Alessandro Senes

Credentials: Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry

Email: senes@wisc.edu

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

Lloyd Smith

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: smith@chem.wisc.edu

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

Weiping Tang

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: weiping.tang@wisc.edu

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

Tina Wang

Credentials: Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: twang495@wisc.edu

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

Amy Weeks

Credentials: Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry

Email: amweeks@wisc.edu

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

Martin Zanni

Credentials: Professor, Department of Chemistry

Email: zanni@chem.wisc.edu

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