Areas of Research in Biochemistry and Biophysics

Structural Biology

• Structure of normal and mutant human hemoglobins using multinuclear NMR spectroscopy
• New methods to study membranes using diffuse x-ray and neutron scattering
• Role of protein dynamics in enzymatic function using NMR methods
• Computational models, algorithms, and data structures for simulating biological self-assembly processes, such as virus capsid assembly
• Synthesis of peptide nucleic acids that bind to specific DNA or RNA targets

Cellular Biophysics

• Mechanical analysis of fibroblast cytoskeletal function

Enzymology

• Delineation of ribosome assembly pathways using biochemical methods to purify ribosome assembly intermediates
• Investigation of the biophysical properties of the movement produced by molecular motors, such as kinesin, at the single molecule level

Imaging

• MRI-based biophysical measurements to elucidate the of development and pathology of the central nervous system
• Transplantation rejection in model systems using MRI
• Development of fluorescence-based detection systems for biology and biotechnology