School of Medicine
Showing 1-25 of 25 Results
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Axel Brunger
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, of Neurology, of Photon Science and, by courtesy, of Structural Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOne of Axel Brunger's major goals is to decipher the molecular mechanisms of synaptic neurotransmitter release by conducting imaging and single-molecule/particle reconstitution experiments, combined with near-atomic resolution structural studies of the synaptic vesicle fusion machinery.
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Steven Chu
William R. Kenan Jr. Professor, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and of Energy Science and Engineering
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsSynthesis, functionalization and applications of nanoparticle bioprobes for molecular cellular in vivo imaging in biology and biomedicine. Linear and nonlinear difference frequency mixing ultrasound imaging. Lithium metal-sulfur batteries, new approaches to electrochemical splitting of water. CO2 reduction, lithium extraction from salt water
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Ron Dror
Cheriton Family Professor and Professor, by courtesy, of Structural Biology and of Molecular & Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy lab’s research focuses on computational biology, with an emphasis on 3D molecular structure. We combine two approaches: (1) Bottom-up: given the basic physics governing atomic interactions, use simulations to predict molecular behavior; (2) Top-down: given experimental data, use machine learning to predict molecular structures and properties. We collaborate closely with experimentalists and apply our methods to the discovery of safer, more effective drugs.
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Liang Feng
Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are interested in the structure, dynamics and function of eukaryotic transport proteins mediating ions and major nutrients crossing the membrane, the kinetics and regulation of transport processes, the catalytic mechanism of membrane embedded enzymes and the development of small molecule modulators based on the structure and function of membrane proteins.
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Chris Garcia
Younger Family Professor and Professor of Structural Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsStructural and functional studies of transmembrane receptor interactions with their ligands in systems relevant to human health and disease - primarily in immunity, infection, and neurobiology. We study these problems using protein engineering, structural, biochemical, and combinatorial biology approaches.
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Miriam B. Goodman
Mrs. George A. Winzer Professor of Cell Biology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study the molecular events that give rise to the sensation of touch and temperature in C. elegans. To do this, we use a combination of quantitative behavioral analysis, genetics, in vivo electrophysiology, and heterologous expression of ion channels. We also collaborate with Pruitt's group in Mechanical Engineering to develop and fabricate novel devices for the study of sensory transduction.
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John Huguenard
Professor of Neurology (Neurology Research Faculty), of Neurosurgery (Adult Neurosurgery) and, by courtesy, of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe are interested in the neuronal mechanisms that underlie synchronous oscillatory activity in the thalamus, cortex and the massively interconnected thalamocortical system. Such oscillations are related to cognitive processes, normal sleep activities and certain forms of epilepsy. Our approach is an analysis of the discrete components (cells, synapses, microcircuits) that make up thalamic and cortical circuits, and reconstitution of components into in silico computational networks.
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Ruth Huttenhain
Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMy group deciphers how G protein-coupled receptors decode extracellular cues into dynamic and context-specific cellular signaling networks to elicit diverse physiologic responses. We exploit quantitative proteomics to capture the spatiotemporal organization of signaling networks combined with functional genomics to study their impact on physiology.
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Brian Kobilka
Hélène Irwin Fagan Chair of Cardiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsStructure, function and physiology of adrenergic receptors.
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Richard Lewis
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study molecular mechanisms of calcium signaling with a focus on store-operated CRAC channels and their essential roles in T cell development and function. Currently we aim to define the molecular mechanism for CRAC channel activation and the means by which calcium signal dynamics mediate specific activation of transcription factors and T-cell genes during development.
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Kif Liakath-Ali
Instructor, Molecular & Cellular Physiology
BioDr Liakath-Ali holds a PhD degree in molecular genetics from the University of Cambridge, UK. He carried out his doctoral and a brief post-doctoral research under the supervision of Professor Fiona Watt at Cambridge and King’s College London. While in Watt lab, he conducted a first, large-scale tissue-specific phenotype screen on hundreds of knockout mice and discovered many novel genes that are essential for mammalian skin function. He further elucidated the mechanistic roles of sphingolipid and a ribosome-rescue pathway in epidermal stem cell function. He has published many papers in the area of skin biology and won several awards, including, most recently a long-term fellowship from the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) and postdoctoral/principal investigator grant from the Larry L Hillblom Foundation.
Dr Liakath-Ali obtained his bachelor and master degree in Zoology from Jamal Mohamed College (Bharathidasan University), Trichy, India. He further specialized in human genetics and obtained an MPhil from the University of Madras, India. He went on to work at various capacities at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad, India, Institute of Human Genetics, University of Göttingen, Germany and the Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK. Dr Liakath-Ali also holds a degree equivalent (Associateship of King’s College (AKC) in Philosophy, Ethics and Theology, awarded by King's College London, UK.
It is perhaps these combinations of diverse backgrounds and training that led Dr Liakath-Ali to develop an interest in fundamental questions in neuroscience. He is currently an EMBO & Hillblom Fellow, working under the mentorship of Professor Thomas Südhof at Stanford on genetic mechanisms involved in synapse formation and function. He is also an avid communicator of science, eLife Community Ambassador, STEM Ambassador and Ambassador for open science, research rigor and reproducibility. -
Martin J. Lohse
Visiting Professor, Molecular & Cellular Physiology
BioMartin Lohse studied medicine and philosophy at the universities of Göttingen (Germany), London (UK) and Paris (France). From 1978 to 1981 he did his MD thesis in the Department of Neurobiology at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysical Chemistry with Otto Creutzfeldt and Wolfgang Wuttke investigating the central nervous system effects of endogenous opiates. He was a postdoc in pharmacology with Ulrich Schwabe at the University of Heidelberg, and then with Robert J. Lefkowitz (HHMI, Duke University), where he later became an Assistant Professor. From Duke he moved to his first independent lab at the Gene Center in Munich/Martinsried, a new research center operated jointly by the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry and the University of Munich. In 1993, he became Chair of the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Würzburg, and remained a professor at this university until his retirement in 2022. In Würzburg, he founded the Rudolf Virchow Center, the DFG Research Center for Experimental Biomedicine (2001-2016), and he became also the founding director of the University of Würzburg Graduate School (2003-2016).
From 2016 to 2019 he served as Chairman of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin, a national research center for molecular medicine. In 2020, while keeping his lab in Berlin, he moved back to Bavaria to establish and lead the new start-up institute/incubator ISAR Bioscience in Munich/Planegg, that aims to use stem cell technologies to advance academic projects towards clinical applications and to foster the formation of start-up companies.
Martin Lohse has accepted many public and professional service duties. He was a member of the German National Ethics Council, Vice President for Research of the University of Würzburg, Vice President of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and President of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians GDNÄ. He has been a member and chair of numerous scientific advisory boards across Europe. He holds honorary, senior and distinguished professorships at the Free University of Berlin, the University of Leipzig, and the Technical University of Munich TUM. At the Department for Molecular and Cellular Physiology of Stanford University he collaborates with the teams of Brian Kobilka and Ruth Hüttenhain to probe the local environment of receptors and its function and regulation. -
Daniel V. Madison
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsOur underlying forms of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity such as long-term potentiation and long-term depression, and in particular the function and plasticity of Parvalbumin-containing interneurons in neocortex. In the past few years, we have used a combinatorial approach to comparing physiological and anatomical plasticity-induced changes in synapses using electrode recording and Array Tomography in the same neurons.
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Merritt Maduke
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMolecular mechanisms of ion chnanels & transporters studied by integration of structural and electrophysiological methods.
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Lucy Erin O'Brien
Associate Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsMany adult organs tune their functional capacity to variable levels of physiologic demand. Adaptive organ resizing breaks the allometry of the body plan that was established during development, suggesting that it occurs through different mechanisms. Emerging evidence points to stem cells as key players in these mechanisms. We use the Drosophila midgut, a stem-cell based organ analogous to the vertebrate small intestine, as a simple model to uncover the rules that govern adaptive remodeling.
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Tino Pleiner
Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe Pleiner lab combines mechanistic cell biology, structural biochemistry and protein engineering to dissect the pathways and molecular machines that mature human membrane proteins to a fully functional state. We also develop alpaca-derived and synthetic nanobodies as tools to modulate intracellular pathways that globally regulate protein homeostasis in health and disease.
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Anthony J. Ricci, PhD
Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor in the School of Medicine and Professor of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery (OHNS) and, by courtesy of Molecular and Cellular Physiology
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsThe auditory sensory cell, the hair cell, detects mechanical stimulation at the atomic level and conveys information regarding frequency and intensity to the brain with high fidelity. Our interests are in identifying specializations associated with mechanotransduction and synaptic transmission leading to the amazing sensitivities of the auditory system. We are also interested in the developmental process, particularly in how development gives insight into repair and regenerative mechanisms.
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Georgios Skiniotis
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, of Structural Biology and of Photon Science
BioThe Skiniotis laboratory seeks to resolve structural and mechanistic questions underlying biological processes that are central to cellular physiology. Our investigations employ primarily cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) and 3D reconstruction techniques complemented by biochemistry, biophysics and simulation methods to obtain a dynamic view into the macromolecular complexes carrying out these processes. The main theme in the lab is the structural biology of cell surface receptors that mediate intracellular signaling and communication. Our current main focus is the exploration of the mechanisms responsible for transmembrane signal instigation in cytokine receptors and G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) complexes.
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Stephen J Smith
Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsStephen Smith remains active in the computational microscopy field and is also currently using data science tools to explore new transcriptomic perspectives on signaling by neuropeptides and other neuromodulators in brains of diverse animal species. These exploration have unearthed evidence for a previous unrecognized ubiquity of local neuropeptide signaling and possible critical involvement of such signaling in memory engram formation.
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Thomas Sudhof
Avram Goldstein Professor in the School of Medicine, Professor of Neurosurgery and, by courtesy, of Neurology and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsInformation transfer at synapses mediates information processing in brain, and is impaired in many brain diseases. Thomas Südhof is interested in how synapses are formed, how presynaptic terminals release neurotransmitters at synapses, and how synapses become dysfunctional in diseases such as autism or Alzheimer's disease. To address these questions, Südhof's laboratory employs approaches ranging from biophysical studies to the electrophysiological and behavioral analyses of mutant mice.
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Richard Tsien
George D. Smith Professor, Emeritus
Current Research and Scholarly InterestsWe study synaptic communication between brain cells with the goal of understanding neuronal computations and memory mechanisms. Main areas of focus include: presynaptic calcium channels, mechanisms of vesicular fusion and recycling. Modulation of synaptic strength through changes in postsynaptic receptors and dendritic morphology. Signaling that links synaptic activity to nuclear transcription and local protein translation. Techniques include imaging, electrophysiology, molecular biology.
