School of Humanities and Sciences


Showing 1-15 of 15 Results

  • Julia Salzman

    Julia Salzman

    Associate Professor of Biomedical Data Science, of Biochemistry and, by courtesy, of Statistics and of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly Interestsstatistical computational biology focusing on splicing, cancer and microbes

  • Johannes Daniel Scharwies

    Johannes Daniel Scharwies

    Basic Life Research Scientist

    BioJohannes received his BSc from the Leibniz Universität Hannover (Germany) in Plant Biotechnology in the Fruit Science laboratory of Prof. Moritz Knoche. Inspired by research on water relations of fruit in the Knoche laboratory, Johannes joined the group of Prof. Stephen Tyerman at The University of Adelaide (Australia) with funding through the German Academic Exchange Service. Initially, his work focused on hydraulic properties of grape clusters for which he received his MSc in Agricultural Science. Afterwards, he joined the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology through the Tyerman laboratory and specialised in molecular plant physiology by studying the role of aquaporins in plant responses to drought for a PhD. He investigated aquaporins, which are molecular channels in plant membranes that provide a gating mechanism for water fluxes and other small molecules, through a combination of gene expression analysis and utilization of transgenic overexpression and CRISPR-Cas9 knockout lines. His work was funded by the highly competitive Adelaide Scholarship International and a Supplementary Scholarship provided by the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology. In April 2018, Johannes joined the laboratory of Prof. José Dinneny at Stanford University as a Postdoctoral Scholar.

    Johannes' research focuses on plant hydraulics from a molecular scale up to whole plants. He is interested on how plants perceive and adapt to changes in the environment in particular related to water. This ranges from developmental decisions to molecular control of water movement, for example through aquaporins.
    In the group of Prof. José Dinneny, he is investigating how lateral root branching responds to moisture availability, a phenomenon termed hydropatterning. He uses his expertise to design novel phenotyping systems to characterise lateral root branching across a wide range of diverse corn inbred lines. These technologies enable the use of population genetics approaches to detect genotype-phenotype associations with the aim to understand causal genetic variants and study how phenotypic plasticity is shaped through breeding.

  • Mark J. Schnitzer

    Mark J. Schnitzer

    Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor of Biology, of Applied Physics and of Neurosurgery
    On Leave from 10/01/2024 To 12/31/2024

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe goal of our research is to advance experimental paradigms for understanding normal cognitive and disease processes at the level of neural circuits, with emphasis on learning and memory processes. To advance these paradigms, we invent optical brain imaging techniques, several of which have been widely adopted. Our neuroscience studies combine these imaging innovations with behavioral, electrophysiological, optogenetic and computational methods, enabling a holistic approach to brain science.

  • Molly Schumer

    Molly Schumer

    Associate Professor of Biology

    BioMolly Schumer is an Assistant Professor in Biology. She is interested in genetics and evolutionary biology. After receiving her PhD at Princeton, she did her postdoctoral work at Columbia and was a Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and Hanna H. Gray Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Current research in the lab centers on understanding the genetic mechanisms of evolution, with a focus on natural populations.

  • Naima G. Sharaf

    Naima G. Sharaf

    Assistant Professor of Biology and, by courtesy, of Structural Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsResearch in the lab bridges biology, microbiology, and immunology to translate lipoprotein research into therapeutics

  • Carla Shatz

    Carla Shatz

    Sapp Family Provostial Professor and Professor of Biology and of Neurobiology
    On Leave from 09/01/2024 To 08/31/2025

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe goal of research in the Shatz Laboratory is to discover how brain circuits are tuned up by experience during critical periods of development both before and after birth by elucidating cellular and molecular mechanisms that transform early fetal and neonatal brain circuits into mature connections. To discover mechanistic underpinnings of circuit tuning, the lab has conducted functional screens for genes regulated by neural activity and studied their function for vision, learning and memory.

  • Kang Shen

    Kang Shen

    Vincent V.C. Woo Director, Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Frank Lee and Carol Hall Professor and Professor of Biology and of Pathology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe connectivity of a neuron (its unique constellation of synaptic inputs and outputs) is essential for its function. Neuronal connections are made with exquisite accuracy between specific types of neurons. How each neuron finds its synaptic partners has been a central question in developmental neurobiology. We utilize the relatively simple nervous system of nematode C. elegans, to search for molecules that can specify synaptic connections and understand the molecular mechanisms of synaptic as

  • Michael Simon

    Michael Simon

    Professor of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsPlanar cell polarity, cell shape and mobility, and control of cell fate

  • Robert Simoni

    Robert Simoni

    Professor, Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsCholesterol in biological membranes; genetic mechanisms & cholesterol production

  • Jan Skotheim

    Jan Skotheim

    Professor of Biology and, by courtesy, of Chemical and Systems Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy overarching goal is to understand how cell growth triggers cell division. Linking growth to division is important because it allows cells to maintain specific size range to best perform their physiological functions. For example, red blood cells must be small enough to flow through small capillaries, whereas macrophages must be large enough to engulf pathogens. In addition to being important for normal cell and tissue physiology, the link between growth and division is misregulated in cancer.

  • Tim Stearns

    Tim Stearns

    Professor of Biology

    Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe use the tools of genetics, microscopy, and biochemistry to understand fundamental questions of cell biology: How are cells organized by the cytoskeleton? How do the centrosome and cilium control cell control cell signaling? How is cell division coordinated with duplication of the centrosome, and what goes wrong in cancer cells defective in this coordination?