| The faculty in the Department of Biochemistry maintain
strong research programs and have access to excellent support
facitilites and stimulating interactions with campus-wide
research focus groups. Our faculty members are leaders in
basic research in several dynamic areas of modern biochemistry
with their primary focus on macromolecular structure and
function of the major biopolymers -- proteins, DNA, RNA, and oligosaccahrides.
Research activities are focused primarily on the study
of the structure and funtion of the major biopolymers.
Major research areas include:
- PROTEIN ENGINEERING, STRUCTURE, AND FUNCTION
- Structure/function of metalloenzymes and membrane proteins using macromolecular crystallography, organic and inorganic synthesis, and spectroscopy (Chan)
- Functional motifs involved in protein/receptor
binding, zinc-binding and phosphorylation (Brooks)
- Protein engineering and biophysical analysis of insecticidal toxin (Dean)
- Protein and nucleic acid structure and dynamics, molecular recognition, signal transduction, enzyme catalysis, computational methods, NMR methodology (Foster)
- Investigation of protein stability, structure and function using combinatorial and statistical approaches as well as unnatural amino acid mutagenesis (Magliery)
- Substrate Recognition by aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases; RNA-Protein Interactions in HIV (Musier-Forsyth)
- Characterization of macromolecules including protein-protein, protein-nucleic acid complexes, membrane proteins and glycosylated proteins by means of modern NMR spectroscopy (Wu)
- Applications of peptide and protein chemistry including native chemical ligation and semisynthesis to address biological problems including nuclear protein transport (Ottesen)
- Oligosaccahride and glycoprotein biochemistry;
natural products synthesis (Wang)
- Structure and function of ribonuclease P, an enzyme which has both RNA and protein moieties (Gopalan)
- Nitric Oxide (NO) chemistry (Means, Wang)
- Protein engineering of protein-flavin interactions
and the regulation of redox properties (Swenson)
- Biochemical processes on the femtosecond timescale
(Zhong)
- STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
- X-ray crystallography (Chan)
- NMR Spectroscopy - Protein structure and dynamics,
macromolecular interactions (Foster)
- NMR Spectroscopy - Membrane proteins, methodology
(Wu)
- Protein chemistry - Chemical modification, peptide synthesis, protein semisynthesis (Ottesen, Means)
- Protein engineering - structure and function, molecular evolution, protein design, incorporation of unnatural amino acids (Brooks, Dean, Magliery, Swenson)
- Glycobiochemistry - Oligosaccahride synthesis and structure, Antibiotics (Wang)
- ENZYMOLOGY AND ENZYME MECHANISMS
- Metalloenzyme mechanisms (Chan)
- Mechanistic studies of viral and repair DNA
polymerases (Suo)
- Electron transfer mechanisms in flavoenzymes
including cytochrome P450 reductase (Swenson)
- Mechanistic enzymology and enzyme kinetics in the study the molecular mechanisms of tRNA processing enzymes (Jackman)
- GENE EXPRESSION, REGULATION, PROTEIN SYNTHESIS
- Mechanism of protein synthesis in chloroplasts
and mitochondria (Breitenberger)
- Mechanism of the multi-component gene switch that regulates 10 genes (GAL genes) that specify galactose utilization functions in the yeast (Hopper)
Our faculty participate in a variety of Ph.D.-level graduate
programs and provide excellent opportunities for training
to be an independent research scientist in any of the above
general areas. Several options for obtaining research training
leading to a Master's degree in basic or biotechnology-related
research are also available.
Undergraduate biochemistry majors are also encouraged
to undertake independent research projects and experience
the excitment of participating in the acquisition of new
knowledge. Please refer to the links on this page and elsewhere
to obtain further information. |
