Faculty
Siela Maximova
Research Professor of Plant Biotechnology Co-Director, Endowed Program in the Molecular Biology of Cocoa
Molecular basis of plant-pathogen and plant-endophyte interactions. Biotechnology of tree crops. Development of sustainable energy crops.
Elizabeth McGraw
Professor and Huck Scholar in Entomology
The genetics of vector, pathogen and symbiont interactions.
Timothy McNellis
Associate Professor of Plant Pathology & Environmental Microbiology
Genetics, molecular biology and physiology of plant interactions with phytopathogenic bacteria. Signal transduction events involved in plant disease resistance. Genetic control of plant hypersensitive cell death.
Scott Medina
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Design of bio-inspired functional materials that serve as new tools in precision medicine. Understanding how peptides and proteins assemble at natural and non-natural interfaces to form organized structures with unique biochemical functions. The design of nano- and micro-scale biomaterials to develop new biosensing and therapeutic strategies to treat infectious disease, inflammation and cancer.
Tim Miyashiro
Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
How bacteria adapt to a host environment. The mutualistic symbiosis established between the Hawaiian bobtail squid (Euprymna scolopes) and a bioluminescent bacterium (Vibrio fischeri).
Andrew Patterson
Associate Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences; Professor and Huck Chair of Molecular Toxicology; Faculty Oversight, Metabolomics Core Facility
The Patterson lab is focused on understanding the host-metabolite-microbiome axis
Kari Peter
Associate Research Professor of Tree Fruit Pathology
Commercial tree fruit disease management: Diseases of stone and pome fruit, especially those caused by bacteria, apple fruit rots, soilborne fungi, and emerging issues; Extesion programming for integrated management for pre- and postharvest tree fruit diseases and fungicide resistance
Divya Prakash
Assistant Research Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology