Mark Akeson, Dept. of Biomolecular Engineering

Mark Akeson's research is focused on the use of nanopore detectors - instruments built around a tiny pore in a membrane or thin, solid-state wafer. These pores are just big enough to allow a single strand of DNA to pass through. Akeson and his collegues use the detectors to understand the dynamics and structure of DNA duplex ends, including those of retrotransposons and HIV. Akeson also investigates the coupling of processive DNA-modifying enzymes to nanopores, both protein and solid-state. Together with UCSC Professors William Dunbar and David Deamer, he has demonstrated enzymatic control of single DNA in nanopores with sequence specificity and real-time feedback control. [More]

Hinrich Boeger, Dept. of MCD Biology

Eukaryotic organisms must package an enormous amount of genetic information in their chromosomes. DNA and proteins form a complex called chromatin, which enables this information to be compacted into a very small space within the nucleus. However, these chromatin structures must also be periodically unfolded in order to make genes accessible to regulatory factors and the molecular machinery that transcribes their information to make functional proteins for the cell. Hinrich Boeger's lab studies the unfolding of chromatin structures in the context of gene regulatory events. [More]

Barry Bowman, Dept. of MCD Biology

Phil Crews, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The Crews laboratory investigates the chemical structure and biological activity of chemical compounds that are derived from marine organisms. Among its many research projects, the laboratory collaborates with scientists at other research institutions and pharmaceutical industries to explore the identification and development of naturally occuring compunds in the fight against cancer. [More]

David Deamer, Biomolecular Engineering

Professor David Deamer and his collaborators investigate physical properties of single DNA molecules. Together, they developed a biomolecular nanopore detector that rapidly discriminates between nearly identical strands of DNA. [More]

Linking Energy Metabolism and Oxygen Utilization

Ólöf Einarsdóttir, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Ólöf Einarsdóttir's Laboratory is interested in fundamental properties of energy transfer in living organisms. Their work focuses on the respiratory chain that provides energy for the cell. Einarsdóttir's principle focus is an enzyme called cytochrome oxidase. Chemical, structural, and functional analyses of this enzyme promise to provide important insight into its role in certain diseases. [More]

Ted Holman, Dept. of Chemistry & Biochemistry

Dynamics of Biomedical Molecules in Vision, Allostery, and Folding

David Kliger, Chemistry & Biochemistry

The Kliger lab uses time-resolved spectroscopy to study protein reactions.  Proteins are central to health, making study of their structure and function critical.  While traditional biochemical methods provide insight about the later steps in function, modern optical methods (particularly pulsed lasers and polarized light) reveal previously unknown steps occurring on a short time scale, which are important in biomedical processes. Such information can lead to the development of new and more effective drug therapies. [More]

Scott Lokey, Chemistry and Biochemistry

The laboratory of Scott Lokey uses a small molecule approach, called chemical genetics, to study signaling pathways related to cell cycle checkpoints and the actin cytoskeleton. In one study, Lokey and his co-workers are developing screens of natural compounds that can be used to examine how cells detect their own DNA damage. Studies such as these might lead to development of a new class of chemotherapeutic agents. [More]

Pradip Mascharak, Chemistry and Biochemistry

Dr. Pradip Mascharak’s bioinorganic chemistry laboratory conducts basic and applied research regarding metal-based, nitric oxide (NO) carriers that release NO when activated by light.  In cancer cells, NO induces apoptosis (programmed cell death), which is the primary cellular mechanism of tumor clearing in chemotherapeutic treatments.  Unlike conventional chemotherapy where the drug is distributed systemically, Mascharak’s synthetic “NO donors” allow unique control over where, when, and how much NO is released. This “photodynamic” approach has intriguing implications for the development of drugs in treating skin and other cancers. [More]

Glenn Millhauser, Department of Chemistry

Seth Rubin, Chemistry and Biochemistry

The Rubin laboratory uses a variety of structural and biochemical techniques to investigate the molecular mechanisms that control the eukaryotic cell cycle. The aim is to elucidate detailed molecular pictures of protein-protein interactions and how these interactions are regulated by structural and chemical modifications. Improper regulation of these protein interaction networks is commonly associated with aberrant cell proliferation and cancer. [More]

Karen Ottemann, Dept. of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology

Nader Pourmand, Dept. of Biomolucular Engineering

The Pourmand lab develops new tools and technologies that integrate biology, electronics, and nanofabrication for the detection and study of genes and proteins. These tools are specifically designed to increase the speed and lower the cost of sample analysis. The lab directs particular attention to the development of medically relevant technology, such as instruments for pathogen detection. Pourmand is also spearheading UCSC's effort to establish a new high-throughput, high-quality sequencing facility. [More]

Bill Saxton, Dept. MCD Biology

The Saxton lab studies mechanisms that drive intracellular transport and cytoplasmic organization, using Drosophila as a model organism. To generate and maintain proper cytoplasmic order and thus their complex functions, cells use microtubules and force-generating motor proteins to transport RNAs, proteins, mitochondria and other organelles to appropriate locations. Neurons are especially dependent on such microtubule-based cytoplasmic transport, because their signaling functions rely on extraordinarily long cytoplasmic extensions (axons and dendrites) that require import of many components from their cell bodies ... [More]

William Scott, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Ribozmes are RNA-based enzymes whose comparatively recent discovery came as major surprize to the scientific community, as it has always been assumed that only proteins could be enzymes. Researchers in the Scott laboratory are trying to understand how ribozymes work, using X-ray crystallography and other biochemical and biophysical techniques. The potential use of ribozymes as therapeutic agents that target RNA viruses (such as HIV) and pathological mRNAs (such as oncogene transcripts) is well-documented. Although the primary motive for our research is to answer questions of a fundamental scientific nature, it is hoped that the results of these studies will provide practical information to the scientific and medical communities to enable more potent and effective ribozyme-based pharmaceuticals to be developed by others. [More]

Michael Stone, Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry

The Stone Research Group combines the use of biochemical and structural methods with newly emerging single-molecule techniques to probe the dynamics of protein-nucleic acid interactions and the molecular mechanisms of biological motors.  Our current area of focus is the structure and function of the telomerase ribonucleoprotein, an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase that maintains genomic stability by synthesizing repetitive DNA sequences at chromosome termini.  These short DNA repeats provide the foundation for specialized chromatin structures, called telomeres, which prevent deleterious chromosome fusion events by differentiating chromosome ends from sites of DNA damage.  It has been shown that telomere length typically decreases with every round of cell division, leading to the so-called ‘molecular clock’ hypothesis, wherein telomere length serves as a signal to control cellular lifespan. This notion is consistent with the finding that active telomere DNA synthesis is normally restricted to rapidly dividing cell types such as stem cells and the majority of human cancers. Our research seeks to elucidate physical mechanisms governing telomere length regulation, and in turn establish a conceptual framework within which to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for human disease. [More]

Hongyun Wang, Dept. of Applied Mathematics and Statistics

Alan Zahler, MCD Biology

The Application of Molecular and Nanomaterial Systems to the Detection and Treatment of Cancer

Jin Zhang , Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry