MCDB Track Faculty

Research Faculty in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology

Fifty-two faculty members from six departments participate in the training track in MCD Biology. Their research covers numerous topics directly related to human health, including stem cell biology, cancer biology, malaria, cholera, host-pathogen interactions, neurodegenerative diseases, and the responses of neurons to stroke and other damage. Basic research focuses on cell division, signaling, meiosis, chromatin remodeling, epigenetics, cell differentiation, and neurobiology.

Approved faculty for research rotations for MCD graduate students are below. MCD Core Faculty are members of the MCD Biology department. MCD Affiliate Faculty are in other departments.

Joshua ArribereCellular quality control of gene expression
Needhi BhallaMeiotic Chromosome Dynamics
Hinrich BoegerChromatin Structure and Gene Regulation
David BoydViral immunology, respiratory viruses, stromal cells, lung biology, lung extracellular matrix
Susan CarpenterLong Noncoding RNA and Innate Immunity
Bin ChenMammalian Brain Development
Bradley ColquittMolecular mechanisms of behavioral development and evolution
Valerie CortezRNA viruses, epithelial biology, and mucosal immunology
David FeldheimThe Generation of Neural Connections
Oliver FregosoLentiviral replication & evolution, innate immunity, DNA damage & repair
Carol GreiderTelomerase and Telomere Length Regulation
Grant HartzogHow Chromatin Influences Transcription
Lindsay HinckCellular Interactions During Organogenesis and Tumorigenesis
Melissa JuricaStructure and Functional Analysis of Spliceosomes
Rohinton KamakakaChromosome Structure and Gene Regulation
Doug KelloggControl of Cell Growth and Size
Euiseok KimConnectivity, function, development, and genetic identity of neural circuits
Harry NollerStructure and Function of the Ribosome
Matthew RomeroSkeletal muscle biology, epigenetic regulation and metabolism
Sofie SalamaMolecular biology, Cell Biology, Stem Cells, Genomics, Neurobiology, Development, Cancer
Jeremy SanfordPost Transcriptional Control of Gene Expression
Upasna SharmaEpigenetics, RNA, chromatin and transcriptional regulation, reproduction, genomes
Madeline SherlockTranslation regulation by viral RNA structures
Shaheen SikandarFunctional Heterogeneity Among Normal and Cancer Stem Cells
Bill SullivanCell Cycle, Cytoskeleton, and Host-pathogen Interactions
Olena VaskeGenomics of pediatric cancers and rare diseases
Zhu WangProstate Development and Cancer, Tissue Stem Cells
Jordan WardProbing C. elegans development, cellular differentiation, and parasitic disease
Yi ZuoSynapse Plasticity and Learning/Memory
MCD Core Faculty
Vicki Auerbuch-StoneMETXInnate Immune Responses to the Human Pathogen Yersinia pseudotuberculosis
Angela BrooksBMETranscriptome Analysis of RNA Splicing and Cancer
Manel CampsMETXUse of Random Mutagenesis for Studies of Evolution and for Therapy
Raquel Chamorro-GarciaMETXEpigenetic mechanisms of genome-environment interactions and transgenerational inheritance in mouse models
Russell Corbett-DetigBMEPopulation and Evolutionary Genomics, Bioinformatics
Rebecca DuBoisBMEStructure, Function, and Engineering of Virus Proteins
Camilla ForsbergBMEMechanisms of Stem Cell Fate Decisions
David HausslerBMEBioinformatics, Computational Genomic Data Analysis, Molecular Evolution and Comparative Genomics
Ted HolmanCHEMBiochemical and Inhibitory Investigations into Lipoxygenase: a Possible Therapeutic for Stroke, Diabetes and Heart Disease
Tim JohnstoneCHEMMedicinal bioinorganic chemistry; synthetic inorganic chemistry; nanoparticle drug delivery; inorganic spectroscopy; small-molecule X-ray crystallography; mammalian and microbiological cell culture
Sarah LoerchCHEMStructure and function of RNA-protein complexes, electron cryo-microscopy, biochemistry and biophysics, image processing
Scott LokeyCHEMChemical Biology, Cyclic Peptides, Small Molecule Screening
Todd LoweBMEComputational and experimental discovery of non-coding RNAs, microbial genomics, extremophile biology
John MacMillanCHEMNatural products chemistry, chemical biology, structural elucidation, cancer biology, microbial natural products
Shaun McKinnieCHEMDiscovery and application of natural product biosynthetic enzymology and chemistry
Jaron MercerCHEMSynthetic organic chemistry, protein evolution, chemical biology
Karen MigaBMECentromere sequence characterization, satellite DNA evolution, epigenetic annotation of repeat-rich regions
Glenn MillhauserCHEMPrions, Metallobiochemistry, Agouti and Melanocortin Signaling, Total Protein Synthesis
Karen OttemannMETXThe Molecular Virulence Factors of Helicobacter pylori
Carrie PartchCHEMMolecular Mechanisms of Circadian Rhythmicity
Benedict PatenBMEGenome Analysis and Precision Medicine
Michael PatnodeMETXDefining competitive relationships among members of the human gut microbiota as it relates to carbohydrate metabolism
Seth RubinCHEMBiochemical Mechanisms in Cell Growth and Division
Shelbi RussellBMESymbiosis, evolutionary genetics, molecular evolution, developmental biology, cell biology
Chad SaltikovMETXUnderstanding the Molecular Biology and Ecology of Bacteria that Metabolize Toxic Metals
Bill ScottCHEMRNA Structure, Catalysis and the Origin of Life
Aleksandra SkrajnaCHEMWe are using interdisciplinary approaches, including proteomics and cryo-EM to study chromatin structure and function
Beth ShapiroEEBInferring the Evolutionary Dynamics of Species and Populations Using Genome-scale Data Sampled Over Time
Tal SharfBMEMapping human neuronal circuitry
Ali ShariatiBMECell division cycle, cellular differentiation, cell fate decision, genome engineering, pluripotency, stem cells, transcription, chromatin
Alexander SherPhysicsNeural Circuits: Function, Development, and Treatment
Donald SmithMETXMolecular and Functional impacts of Neurotoxic Agents
Michael StoneCHEMStructure and Dynamics of Telomeres and Telomerase
Christopher VollmersBMEDNA Sequencing Tools for the Analysis of B cells
Andy YehBMEUsing Protein Design and Chemical Biology to build light-emitting systems and protein biosensors for biological discovery and diagnostics
Fitnat YildizMETXMolecular Mechanisms of Biofilm Formation in Vibrio cholerae
Last modified: Aug 01, 2025