Graduate students in the Division meld molecular and structural biology with physical, organic and analytical chemistry to understand the molecular basis of biological processes and human disease. Research in the Biological Division focuses on the structure, stability and function of proteins, membranes, DNA, RNA, macromolecular complexes and viruses, natural product biogenesis, synthetic biology, and genomics.

Students are a constant source of new hypotheses for mechanisms underlying cellular machines like the ribosome, spliceosome, and as well as protein and RNA folding. Students tackle these problems using biochemical methods, chemical biosensor technologies, protein and nucleic acid crystallography, in vitro and in vivo evolution, multi-dimensional NMR spectroscopy, surface chemistry, atomic-force microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and high-resolution mass spectrometry.

Doctoral students in our Divsion leave the Department broadly trained for leadership roles in academia and industry.

Structure and Function of a Dehydrating Condensation Domain in Nonribosomal Peptide Biosynthesis

Here, we provide biochemical and bioinformatic evidence in support of the role of a unique class of condensation domains in dehydration (CmodAA).

Metagenomics combined with activity-based proteomics point to gut bacterial enzymes that reactivate mycophenolate

Here, we compare the fecal microbiomes of transplant recipients receiving MMF to healthy individuals using shotgun metagenomic sequencing.

HepaRG Cells Adopt Zonal-Like Drug-Metabolizing Phenotypes under Physiologically Relevant Oxygen Tensions and Wnt/beta-Catenin Signaling

We hypothesized that incorporating physiologically relevant environments would promote post-differentiation patterning of hepatocytes and result in zonal-like characteristics. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated the transcriptional regulation and activity of drug-metabolizing enzymes in HepaRG cells exposed to three different oxygen tensions, in the presence or absence of Wnt/β-catenin signaling.