Faculty and research areas

Research Faculty
Timothy Durrett Professor and Director of Graduate Studies Biochemistry of triacylglycerol biosynthesis. Structure and function of membrane bound acyltransferases. Genetically modifying the physical properties of seed oils for industrial and biofuel applications. Dr. Durrett's research video	Brandon Garcia Associate Professor Lyme Disease Pathogenesis, Mechanisms of Bacterial Immune Evasion, Protein Structure-Function, Drug Discovery.
Brian Geisbrecht University Distinguished Professor Innate Immunity; Molecular Basis of Infectious Diseases and Host-Pathogen Interactions; Structural Biology and Molecular Recognition Dr. Geisbrecht's research video	Erika Geisbrecht Professor Formation and maintenance of muscle and heart tissue; biochemistry and molecular genetics of Drosophila; and cell signaling in development. Dr. Geisbrecht's lab Dr. Geisbrecht's research video
Shijiao Huang Assistant Professor My scientific goal is to understand the mechanisms of aging and to develop clinically relevant drugs to delay aging and enhance human health and longevity. Dr. Huang's lab	Michael Kanost University Distinguished Professor Insect hemolymph proteins: biochemistry and molecular biology. Structure and function of serine proteinases, proteinase inhibitors, and antimicrobial response proteins from insect hemolymph. Dr. Kanost's lab Dr. Kanost's research video
Phillip E. Klebba University Distinguished Professor Iron acquisition by active transport through the cell envelopes of bacteria; Immunological approaches to bacterial pathogenesis; Biophysical analyses of bacterial membrane transport in living cells Dr. Klebba's lab Dr. Klebba's research video	Om Prakash Professor and Graduate Admissions Chair Structural characterization and molecular recognition using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Computer Aided Molecular Design (CAMD). NMR lab
Anna Zolkiewska Professor Molecular mechanisms of human disease; Triple negative breast cancer; Tumor immune microenvironment; ADAM metalloproteases	Michal Zolkiewski Professor and Department Head Protein structure and function, protein folding and aggregation, molecular chaperones and cellular stress. Dr. Zolkiewski's research video
Neal Dittmer Research Assistant Professor Insect biochemistry and molecular biology; insect cuticle synthesis and sclerotization; insect multicopper oxidases	Maureen Gorman Research Associate Professor Insect biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics; mechanisms of iron metabolism in insects; function of insect multicopper oxidases; insect innate immunity.
Adjunct Faculty
Saurav Misra Adjunct Associate Professor Intracellular Protein Quality Control. Ubiquitination Mechanisms. Structural Biology and Biophysical Methods.	Pinakin Sukthankar Adjunct Assistant Professor Synthesis and applications of bio-inspired nanomaterials, Drug Delivery & Gene therapeutics, Biomolecular self-assembly
Ancillary Faculty
Sherry D Fleming Professor Focus on the complement system and other innate immune molecules. Determining the damaging aspects of the innate immune response in multiple models of tissue injury. Dr. Fleming's Lab	Jeremy Schmit Associate Professor Theoretical Soft Condensed Matter and Biological Physics Dr. Schmit's Lab
Ruth Welti University Distinguished Professor Structure and function of cell membranes; Mass-spectrometry-based lipid analysis. Dr. Welti's Lab
Emeritus Faculty
Lawrence Davis Professor Emeritus Nitrogen fixation mutants, structure-function relationships, associating macromolecules; environmental metabolic processes, bioremediation; science education.	Karl Kramer Adjunct Professor Emeritus Insect biochemistry, cuticle sclerotization, molting, control, and metabolism.
Ramaswamy Krishnamoorthi Associate Professor Emeritus Structural Biology; NMR studies of protein structure, dynamics, and stability in relation to function; serine proteinases and their protein inhibitors; protein domains involved in signal transduction (plant phospholipase D domains; insect glucan-binding proteins).	Subbaratnam Muthukrishnan University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Characterization and manipulation of expression of defense genes to enhance plant resistance to fungal and insect pests
Tom Roche University Distinguished Professor Emeritus Structure, function and regulation of mammalian pyruvate dehydrogenase complex	Dolores Takemoto Professor Emeritus Biochemistry of proteins in the retina and lens of the eye, the mechanism of cell growth control and repair during diabetes, and identification of antioxidants in foods which are responsible for anticancer activity.
John Tomich Professor Emeritus Self-assembling Amphipathic peptides. Dr. Tomich's research video
In Memoriam
Gerald Reeck Professor Proteins and enzymes of aphid saliva and of stored product insect pests; biochemistry and molecular genetics of Armet (MANF), both human and insect; and cereal proteins and inhibitors.

Faculty and research areas

Saurav Misra

Pinakin Sukthankar