The Biochemistry Division includes several faculty members with well-funded, nationally recognized research programs. Areas of interest include biophysics, structural biology, cellular signaling, chemical biology and biochemical methods development.

 

Wonhwa Cho studies the chemical biology of membranes and membrane-binding proteins that play key roles in cell regulation and are thus implicated in major human diseases. He has been developing novel chemical, physical, computational and analytical research methods and applying them to the study of the mechanisms of cellular protein-protein and protein-lipid interactions both on a single-molecule level and on a systems biology level. Current research projects include bioinformatics-based identification and characterization of lipid binding domains, development of new molecular sensors for lipid quantification, mechanism of membrane deformation by lipid binding domains, and mechanistic studies of cellular signaling proteins in living cells.

 

Leslie Fung's group investigates the structure and function of the spectrin family of cytoskeleton scaffolding proteins. The research employs various biophysical methods, including EPR, fluorescence, high-resolution NMR and X-ray crystallography, to study structural differences in critical regions of spectrin isoforms. Other techniques include ITC and yeast-two-hybrid methods to study interactions of spectrin model proteins with other proteins. Findings from these studies provide insight into the molecular physiology of spectrin molecules in erythrocytes, brain cells and other cell types, and of diseases related to spectrin tetramers, such as hereditary hemolytic anemia blood diseases, and neurological disorders.

 

Larry Miller develops and applies novel chemical and analytical methods to study protein function in living mammalian cells. His experimental approach incorporates synthetic organic chemistry, molecular and cell biology, and microscopy to analyze protein-protein interactions both in vivo and in vitro. Miller Group research interests include the synthesis of small molecules that specifically label recombinant proteins and impart them with unique optical and chemical functionality, the development of time-resolved fluorescence microscopy, and quantitative imaging of protein-protein interactions.

 

Jung-Hyun Min's group investigates the structures and mechanisms of various protein complexes that are involved in DNA damage recognition and repair using X-ray crystallography and diverse biochemical and biophysical methods. DNA damage repair plays a crucial role in maintaining the integrity of the genome, and defects in this process can lead to diseases such as cancer and premature ageing. Outcomes of her research provide an atomic-level understanding of the repair mechanisms and shed light on the underlying causes of the related diseases.