Biophysics - Participating Faculty

Mary Ann Allen (Biofrontiers)Research to understand Global Regulation of Gene Expression through use of computational and molecular tools that focus on the TF binding sites, enhancer RNAs, nascent transcription, and gene expression to crack the genome's code.

 (Chemical & Biological Engineering and HHMI) Polymers, engineering of novel biomaterials, photopolymerization of biomaterials and medical applications, computer simulation

Halil Aydin (Biochemistry) Membrane Biology, Cell Signaling, Proteins and Enzymology, Molecular Biophysics, Structural Biology, and Electron Cryo-Microscopy

 (Biochemistry) X-ray crystallographic studies of the structures and mechanisms of ribonucleoprotein enzymes and switches, including those involved in signal recognition during membrane targetting, in biogenesis of ribosomes, and in RNA regulation

R. Kōnane Bay (Chemical and Biological Engineering)  Mechanics of difficult to handle materials, polymers, fabrication of engineered living materials, microbial biofilms

Meredith Betterton (Physics) Mathematical modeling and computational analysis of biophysical problems, including the unwinding of DNA by helicases, and the physical properties of DNA tethers used in single molecule studies

(Chemical and Biological Engineering) - Photopolymerization techniques to create synthetic hydrogels with incorporated biomolecules, for use in cell and tissue growth and regeneration

Jeffrey C. Cameron (Biochemistry, RASEI) Spatial and Temporal Organization of Bacterial Metabolism 

 (Biochemistry and HHMI) Use of X-ray crystallography to understand the folding and catalytic function of ribozymes and other large RNA molecules; combinatorial (in vitro selection) approaches; kinetic and thermodynamic analysis

Shelley D. Copley (Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology) Microbial degradation of xenobiotic pollutants; evolution, mechanism, and quality of function of enzymes recruited to serve novel functions in a new metabolic pathways; physical organic chemistry of catalytic mechanisms; catalysis in biogenesis on early Earth

 (Biochemistry) Biophysical chemistry; in situ spectroscopic and single molecule studies of membrane-bound signaling proteins, complexes, and pathways; novel uses of fluorescence methods and site-directed sulfhydryl chemistry to probe protein structures, dynamics and mechanisms; magnetic resonance methods; macrophage chemotaxis and phagocytosis pathways

Nuris M. Figueroa (Physics) Bacterial motility in anisotropic media

(Chemical & Biological Engineering) Biocatalytic networks for the discovery and synthesis of functional molecules (e.g., pharmaceuticals), and for the design of new classes of synthetic systems

Matthew A. Glaser (Physics) Computational Physics; simulation studies of the phase behavior of idealized and atomistic models for liquid crystals in the bulk and in confined geometries; experimental and theoretical studies of molecular motor systems; self-assembly in liquid crystals, colloidal suspensions, polyelectrolytes, and biomaterials

James A. Goodrich (Biochemistry) Molecular mechanisms and kinetics of human mRNA transcription, transcriptional regulation, reconstitution and kinetic characterization of transcriptional complexes, FRET analysis of transcriptional complex structure and dynamics

Laurel E. Hind (Chemical & Biological Engineering) Engineered systems to study the innate immune response to infection

Andreas Hoenger (Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology) Cryo-electron microscopy-based three-dimensional (3-D) reconstruction of large macromolecular assemblies and cellular structures, whenever possible within the context of an intact cell; microtubule structures, MAPS and molecular motors

Loren E. Hough(Physics) Experimental biophysics of intrinsically disordered protein domains including the C-terminal tail of tubulin and proteins involved in the nuclear pore complex

(Chemistry; Physical Chemistry) Protein dynamics, ultrafast laser spectroscopies for measuring dynamics on the femtosecond through nanosecond time scales, role of protein flexibility in immune system recognition

Joel L. Kaar (Chemical & Biological Engineering) Intersection of protein engineering, biocatalysis, and materials and how the convergence of these areas can lead to new opportunities to discover enzymes with improved properties and impart materials with biological function

(Biochemistry) Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), mass spectrometry and biochemistry, interactions of chromatin modifiers and transcription factors with chromatin, visualizing the in situ chromosome architecture and higher order chromatin structures using a combination of cryo-focused ion beam milling (cryo-FIB) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET).

Leslie A. Leinwand (Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology) Biophysical studies of motor protein performance; formation, function and dysfunction of skeletal and cardiac muscle; components of the sarcomere including myosin heavy chain and troponin T; mutations that cause heart disease

(Biochemistry and HHMI) Structural properties of the nucleosome;  chromatin higher order structures;  mechanisms by which transcription, replication, recombination, and repair take place within the context of highly compacted chromatin

(Chemistry)  Theoretical condensed phase dynamics, including developing and applying methods to: elucidate optical signals from biological chromophores revealing how chemical environments can tune energy and charge transfer pathways; and accurately and efficiently predict long-time configurational dynamics of large biomolecules.

 (Chemistry; Physical Chemistry; JILA) Confocal far field microscopy of single protein molecules; single molecule kinetics of substrate-protein binding; high resolution scanning optical microscopy on subnanometer length scales; single molecule fluorescence, non-linear and Raman spectroscopies

Corey P. Neu (Mechanical Engineering) Multiscale biomechanics and imaging, cell and nuclear mechanobiology

(Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology) Genetic, molecular, biochemical and cell biological assays to identify genes involved in neural tube closure and development of innovative methods for time-lapse imaging of living mammalian embryo to couple molecular insights to the regulation of cell behaviors driving neural tube closure.

 (Biochemistry) Chemical biology, biosensor design, imaging of signal transduction pathways; development of novel FRET sensors and reporters; phage display, rational protein design, and peptide synthesis; spectroscopic and biophysical methods

(Biochemistry and HHMI) - Biophysical and biochemical studies of how cells regulate the translation and degradation of mRNAs, using yeast as a model system

 (Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, JILA) Single molecule analysis of biological motors using optical tweezers and single molecule spectroscopy, motor proteins involved in DNA unwinding, transcription and translation, state-of-the-art laser spectroscopy

 (Chemical & Biological Engineering) Pressure effects on protein folding and unfolding; protein stability; protein-solvent interactions; processing and formulation of protein-based pharmaceutical products; spectroscopies including EPR, FTIR, circular dichroism, light scattering, and surface plasmon resonance

(Chemical and Biological Engineering) Interfacial phenomena, biomolecules at interfaces, surface modification via molecular self-assembly, single-molecule microscopy methods, nanoscale surface structures

C. Wyatt Shields IV (Chemical and Biological Engineering) Drug Delivery, Biosensing, Active Matter, Soft Materials, Colloid and Interface Science, Microfluidics

Michael R. Shirts (Chemical and Biological Engineering) Design and characterize new materials at the nanoscale using theory and computation

Marcelo C. Sousa (Biochemistry) X-ray crystallographic analysis of proteins and protein complexes; development of novel methods for high throughput protein cloning, expression, and purification; crystallographic of membrane signaling proteins

Kayla G. Sprenger  (Chemical and Biological Engineering) Molecular simulation, adaptive immune response and the in silico design of optimal immunization protocols.

 (Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology) Electron and x-ray crystallographic structure analysis of proteins and larger protein complexes, architectural arrangement of signaling proteins and enzymes in macromolecular assemblies at the synapse, tomography and 3-D image reconstruction

Dylan J. Taatjes (Biochemistry) Structural and functional studies of large, multi-subunit complexes involved in gene regulation; cryo-electron microscopy; mediator complexes CRSP and ARC-L

(Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology and HHMI) Organelle biogenesis; Use of electron microscopy, fluorescence and other tools to learn how membrane proteins and their partners define the shapes of cellular membranes

(Chemisty)  Chemical biology and biophysical approaches to understand molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration, chemical synthesis, chemical probes and rational drug design

Timothy A. Whitehead (Chemical and Biological Engineering) Protein engineering, protein design, biomolecular recognition, renewable energy production, antibody and antibody mimics, antigen design, synthetic biology, biochemical engineering

Alexandra M. Whiteley (Biochemistry) Regulation of protein degradation by UBQLNs and their role in cellular and organismal health

Aaron T. Whiteley (Biochemistry) Innate immune signaling and defense against pathogens, in bacteria and humans

 (Biochemistry) High-resolution, heteronuclear, multi-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance studies of biomolecules and their complexes; use of NMR and biochemical methods to probe the relationship between three-dimensional structure and function in solution