People

Jean-Paul Armache

Assistant Professor of of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The mechanisms and functions of ATP-dependent chromatin remodeling complexes and their place in gene regulation.

Stephen Benkovic

Evan Pugh University Professor and Eberly Chair in Chemistry

Co-Director, Center for RNA Molecular Biology; Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
RNA folding in vivo and genome-wide; RNA regulation of gene expression; Ribozyme Mechanism; roles RNA may have played in the emergence of life on early earth

David Boehr

Associate Professor of Chemistry
The role of protein dynamics in enzyme function, coordination and regulation

Mike Carnegie

Systems Administrator

Sung Hyun (Joseph) Cho

Director, Cryo-Electron Microscopy Core Facility; Assistant Research Professor

Joshua Gross

Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Biobehavioral Health
Molecular mechanisms underlying food reward and its downstream dysregulation of metabolism, particularly in response to obesogenic diets.

jdg6119@psu.edu

Mark Hedglin

Assistant Professor of Chemistry; Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Deciphering how efficient and faithful replication of the human genome is achieved within the highly-complex, dynamic, and reactive environment of the nucleus. Identifying pathways for genomic instability in humans, identifying novel oncogenic drug targets, developing better chemotherapeutic treatments for human cancers caused by genomic instability.

Joyce Jose

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Virus-host interactions involved in the pathogenesis of alphaviruses and flaviviruses. Analysis of virus induced structures and cytoskeletal modifications in mammalian host and insect vector using high-resolution live cell imaging and electron microscopy. Viral determinants of neurotropism, encephalitis, transmission and persistence in BSL-3 pathogens.

Andrey Krasilnikov

Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural biology of RNA and RNA-protein complexes

Scott Lindner

Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Co-Director, Center for Malaria Research
Our laboratory couples molecular parasitology and structural biology to study the malaria parasite (Plasmodium spp.).

Ibrahim Moustafa

Assistant Research Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Process and analyze cryo-EM data to generate high-resolution 3D reconstructions using established software packages.

Katsuhiko Murakami

Faculty Director of the Cryo-Electron Microscopy Core Facility; Interim Director, Center for Structural Biology; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural and Mechanistic Enzymology of Prokaryotic RNA Polymerases

B. Tracy Nixon

Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural and functional basis of cellulose synthesis. Using Physcomitrella patens and other organisms as model systems, we are learning how plants make cellulose for building new cell wall. The studies use methods of molecular biology and cryoEM to characterize the enzyme as a monomer, and when it assembles into its larger 'Cellulose Synthase Complex '(CSC for short). The aim is to understand cellulose synthesis to explain fundamentals of cell wall biology in plants, and to enable manipulation of its synthesis for applications in fields of bioenergy and materials.

Denise Okafor

Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Structural mechanisms of signaling and regulation in protein complexes.

Scott Showalter

Professor of Chemistry; Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Biophysical Chemistry applied to solution NMR spectroscopy of partially disordered proteins. NMR studies of protein dynamics coupled with computational and theoretical studies of the coupling between nuclear spin relaxation and molecular motion.