Editors for Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

We aim to publish studies that provide new mechanistic insights into the structure, function, and regulation of biological molecules including proteins, nucleic acids, lipids, carbohydrates, and natural products. In addition, we are interested in studies that illuminate complex biological processes using chemical tools and approaches. Read the latest research in this subject area.

Type

All sections

Senior editors

Anna Akhmanova

Utrecht University, Netherlands

Anna Akhmanova is a Professor of Cell Biology at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She studied biochemistry and molecular biology at the Moscow State University and obtained her PhD at the University of Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Akhmanova studies cytoskeletal organization and trafficking processes, which contribute to cell polarization, differentiation, vertebrate development and human disease. The main focus of the work in her group is the microtubule cytoskeleton. Research in the group relies on combining high-resolution live cell imaging and quantitative analysis of cytoskeletal dynamics with in vitro reconstitution experiments. Her work has resulted in identification and characterization of a broad variety of factors which control microtubule organization and dynamics and motor attachment to membrane organelles. Anna Akhmanova is an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Expertise
Cell Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
cytoskeleton
cytoskeletal dynamics
microtubules
microtubule-binding proteins
motor proteins
membrane transport
cell migration

Experimental organism
human cells
mouse

Competing interests statement
Anna Akhmanova receives funding from the European Research Council, Human Frontier Science Program, and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience. She served on the editorial boards of BMC Cell Biology and Journal of Biological Chemistry. She is a currently on the editorial boards of PLOS Biology, Journal of Cell Science, Traffic, and BioArchitecture.
Richard Aldrich

The University of Texas at Austin, United States

Rick Aldrich is the Karl Folkers Chair II in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research and Professor of Neuroscience at The University of Texas at Austin. He joined the faculty in 2006 and served as chair until 2011. Previously he was on the faculty of Neurobiology (1985-1990) and of Molecular and Cellular Physiology (1990-2006) at Stanford University where he served as department chair from 2001–2004. He was an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 1990 to 2006. His work is on molecular mechanisms of ion channels and calcium signaling proteins, with an emphasis on understanding gated conformational changes and allosteric mechanisms. Work in the laboratory is multidisciplinary including electrophysiology, biochemistry, spectroscopy, informatics and computation. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Biophysical Society. He is past president of the Biophysical Society and the Society of General Physiologists, and has received the Kenneth Cole Award for Membrane Physiology from the Biophysical Society and Alden Spencer Award for Neuroscience Research from Columbia University.

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Neuroscience
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
ion channels
calcium binding proteins
membrane transport
allostery and cooperativity
cellular neurophysiology
biochemical neuroscience

Competing interests statement
Richard Aldrich is employed by The University of Texas at Austin. He receives research funding from the National Institutes of Health. He is a member of the National Academy of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Biophysical Society. He serves actively on the editorial boards of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and The Journal of General Physiology.
Nancy Carrasco

Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, United States

Nancy Carrasco is the Joe C. Davis Professor and Chair of the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She obtained her MD and Master’s in Biochemistry from the National Autonomous University of Mexico in her native Mexico City. Dr Carrasco did her postdoctoral work at the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology in New Jersey, for which she received a Fogarty International Fellowship. She then joined the Department of Molecular Pharmacology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and later the Department of Cellular and Molecular Physiology at the Yale School of Medicine. Dr Carrasco has a longstanding interest in transport across biological membranes and in the role of membrane proteins in physiology and pathophysiology. Her cloning of the sodium/iodide symporter (NIS) has had numerous ramifications for many other fields, including structure/function of transport proteins, molecular endocrinology, gene transfer studies, cancer, and public health (she has served on the EPA’s Science Advisory Board). She has received numerous awards, including the Pew Award; the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation Award; the Maria Sibylla Merian Award (Germany); the Merck Prize from the European Thyroid Association (Poland); the Rose Pitt-Rivers Lectureship at the British Endocrine Society Meeting (Scotland); the Noun Shavit Award (Israel); the Marshall S. Horwitz Faculty Prize for Research Excellence; and the Light of Life Award. She has served as president of the Society of Latin American Biophysicists. Dr Carrasco was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2015 and to the National Academy of Medicine in 2020.

Expertise
Medicine
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
molecular endocrinology
biochemistry of membrane proteins
biophysics of membrane proteins
mechanistic information of NIS
regulation of NIS
sodium/iodide symporter
cross-talk between hormones
metabolism

Experimental organism
mouse
human

Competing interests statement
Dr Carrasco’s research has been funded by NIH. She is on the NICHD Board of Scientific Counselors.
Philip Cole

Harvard Medical School, United States

Phil Cole is Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at Harvard Medical School and is a Senior Investigator in the Division of Genetics at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in Chemistry and then spent a year as a Churchill Scholar at the University of Cambridge prior to obtaining M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he pursued research in bioorganic chemistry. Cole then entered post-doctoral and clinical training at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. He subsequently held faculty positions at Rockefeller University and then Johns Hopkins where he was Chair of Pharmacology prior to returning to Harvard in 2017. His research interests are related to the chemical biology of cell signaling and epigenetics. His group has developed and applied methods for protein semisynthesis and small molecule probes for kinases, acyltransferases, deacetylases, and demethylases. His honors include election to the ASCI, fellow of the AAAS, and receipt of an NIH MERIT award.

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
protein modification
enzyme mechanisms
cell signalling
epigenetics

Competing interests statement
Philip Cole is on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Maryland Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology Research, and the Searle Scholars Program. He is a cofounder of Acylin Therapeutics Inc and a science advisor for the Abbvie, Epizyme, and Forma companies and has been a consultant for MPM Capital. Cole has received research funding from the NIH, the FAMRI foundation, and the V Foundation. He is a member of the editorial boards of the following journals: J Biol Chem, Biomed Central Biology, ChemBioChem, and Bioorganic Chemistry.
Volker Dötsch

Goethe University, Germany

Volker Dötsch is Professor of Biophysical Chemistry at Goethe University and a member of the Magnetic Resonance Center Frankfurt. He studied chemistry at the University of Göttingen and obtained a PhD from the ETH in Zürich. As a postdoctoral fellow he used NMR to determine the structure of protein-DNA complexes at the Harvard Medical School. In 1998 he moved as assistant professor to the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). In 2003 he was appointed professor at the Institute of Biophysical Chemistry of Goethe University in Frankfurt. His research interests focus on the structural and functional characterization of members of the p53 protein family, in particular p63 and its involvement in genetic quality control in germ cells. In addition, his laboratory uses a combination of NMR spectroscopy and cell-free protein expression to investigate the structure and function of membrane proteins and studies molecular interactions regulating autophagy. His lab uses a wide variety of biophysical methods including NMR spectroscopy and combines these studies with investigations in cell culture experiments and mouse models. Volker Dötsch is an elected EMBO member.

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
p53 protein family
cell-free expression and membrane protein structure and function
autophagy

Competing interests statement
Volker Dötsch has received funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, the National Institutes of Health and the Deutsche Krebshilfe. He is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Frankfurt Institute of Advanced Studies and a member of the editorial boards of Journal of Biological Chemistry and Cell Death & Disease.
José Faraldo-Gómez

Senior Editor

José Faraldo-Gómez studied Physics at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, Spain, and went on to pursue a PhD degree in the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics at the University of Oxford, graduating in 2002. He then moved to the United States, and acquired postdoctoral training first at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, and subsequently at the University of Chicago. His pre- and post-doctoral work was focused on membrane proteins and in later years also on signaling enzymes, studied through computer simulations and other theoretical methods. In late 2007, Dr Faraldo-Gómez established the Theoretical Molecular Biophysics Laboratory at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2013, Dr Faraldo-Gómez relocated his laboratory to the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, MD, USA, where he joined the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute as a Tenure-Track Investigator. He became a tenured Senior Investigator in 2016. Dr Faraldo-Gómez served as a handling editor at the Biophysical Journal from 2011 to 2017, and as an Associate Editor in the Journal of General Physiology from 2016 to 2019. At eLife, he first served as a Reviewing Editor, from 2017 to 2019, and is now a Senior Editor.

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
computational biophysics
molecular computation
membrane proteins

Competing interests statement
José Faraldo-Gómez has no competing interests to disclose. Dr Faraldo-Gómez is a Senior Investigator at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the US National Institutes of Health.
Vivek Malhotra

The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Spain

Vivek Malhotra was a professor in the biology division at UC San Diego from 2007 and is now the ICREA Professor and Chair of the Cell and Developmental Biology at Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona. His research focuses on a central station of the secretory pathway, the Golgi complex. Specifically, his work has resulted in the identification of the machinery required for the sorting and packaging of secretory cargoes. His recent work has uncovered a novel secretory routing that bypasses the conventional pathway of protein secretion. He has identified new genes required for the export of bulky collagens and the regulated secretion of mucins. He received his BSc from Stirling University and was a Pirie–Reid scholar at Oxford, a Damon Runyon Walter Winchell and an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, and Basil O’Conner scholar, established Investigator of the American Heart Association, and Senior Investigator of Sandler’s Foundation for Asthma at UC San Diego. He received the MERCK award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, is a fellow of the American association of the arts and science, and is an elected EMBO member.

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology

Research focus
Golgi membranes
protein secretion
collagen
mucins
unconventional protein secretion

Competing interests statement
Vivek Malhotra receives funding from ERC/European Research Council, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, AGAUR and the Plan Nacional (Spain) He is a Scientific Advisory Board member of TIGEM (Naples, Italy), CNR (Naples, Italy), CBMSO (Madrid, Spain) and Department of Biotechnology (India). He has served on the editorial board of Cell and was an associate editor of Molecular Biology of the Cell. He is currently on the editorial boards of Journal of Cell Biology and Current Opinion in Cell Biology.
Michael Marletta

University of California, Berkeley, United States

Michael Marletta holds the CH and Annie Li Chair in the Molecular Biology of Disease and is Professor of Chemistry and of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Previous to his appointment at UC Berkeley, he was a former President and CEO of The Scripps Research Institute. He has also been on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he was an HHMI Investigator, and MIT. Marletta obtained an A.B. in chemistry and biology from the State University of New York at Fredonia, a PhD from UCSF under George Kenyon and, after a postdoctoral appointment at MIT under Chris Walsh, began his independent career at MIT. His work has spanned protein chemistry and enzymology. He has made many contributions to our understanding of nitric oxide signaling and more generally in molecular mechanisms of gas sensing in eukaryotes and prokaryotes. More recent studies have involved novel enzymes involved with cellulose degradation. Marletta is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
chemical biology
nitric oxide signaling
gas sensing
structural basis of enzyme activity
enzymology
protein structure
protein function
metals in biology
cell signaling

Experimental organism
E. coli
human

Competing interests statement
Michael Marletta has received funding from the NIH, NSF, HHMI, and the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund. He is a member of the Biomedical Sciences Advisory Board at Vanderbilt University. He is a member of the Foundation Board at SUNY Fredonia. He is a co-founder of Omniox, Inc. He is a member of the Intelligence Community Studies Board of the National Academies.
Suzanne R Pfeffer

Stanford University School of Medicine, United States

Suzanne Pfeffer is the Emma Pfeiffer Merner Professor of Medical Sciences and Professor of Biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is an expert in the field of membrane trafficking in the secretory and endocytic pathways, and her research currently focuses on the molecular basis of LRRK2-mediated, familial Parkinson's Disease and Niemann Pick Type C disease, with emphasis on Rab GTPase regulation and cholesterol export from lysosomes. She is a past President of the American Society for Cell Biology and the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a Fellow of the American Society for Cell Biology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Expertise
Cell Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
membrane trafficking
endosomes
lysosomes
Golgi complex
neurodegeneration
Parkinson's disease
endocytosis
secretory pathway
Rab GTPase
primary cilia

Experimental organism
human
mouse

Competing interests statement
Suzanne Pfeffer's research is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Michael J. Fox Foundation and the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation. She serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Foundation, the Swiss National Science Foundation funded NCCR program in Chemical Biology at the EPFL and University of Geneva, and she is a chartered member of the NIH NCSD review panel. Suzanne Pfeffer also serves as Co-Section Head for Membranes and Sorting, Faculty of 1000.
David Ron

Cambridge University, United Kingdom

David Ron is a Professor at Cambridge University. He directs a lab at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research (CIMR) studying protein-folding homeostasis in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). The lab uses biochemical, biophysical and cell-based tools to research both the molecular mechanisms that recognize the burden of unfolded proteins and thus initiate signalling in the ER unfolded protein response (UPR) and the downstream effector pathways by which cells adapt to unfolded protein stress in their ER. These effector mechanisms engage post-translational regulation of ER chaperone function, regulated translation of mRNA and transcriptional control of gene expression and thus interface with other cellular stress pathways.

To eLife, David Ron brings scientific expertise in the study of the unfolded protein response, chaperone function and stress-induced regulation of mRNA translation and editorial experience from having served as an eLife Reviewing Editor since 2012.

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology

Research focus
chaperones
unfolded protein response
oxidative protein folding
protein synthesis

Experimental organism
C. elegans
E. coli
human
mouse
S. cerevisiae

Competing interests statement
David Ron holds a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship and is on the editorial advisory boards of J. Cell Science, PLOS Biology and EMBO J.
Dominique Soldati-Favre

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Dr Dominique Soldati-Favre studied biochemistry and earned her PhD degree in molecular biology from the University of Zürich (Switzerland) in 1990. She then conducted postdoctoral research in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology of the Stanford University School of Medicine. In 1995 she was appointed assistant professor at the Center for Molecular Biology at the University of Heidelberg (Germany). In 2001 she moved to Imperial College London (United Kingdom) and became Reader. Since 2004, she is professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva.

Her laboratory is studying obligate intracellular parasitism using Toxoplasma gondii and is also increasingly engaged in malaria research. The main line of research focuses on the cell biology underlying how these pernicious pathogens glide into mammalian cells. Her group is also aiming at defining the metabolic needs and capabilities of the parasites as well as how they subvert host cellular functions in particular to access nutrients.

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
parasitology
organelle biogenesis
protein trafficking
metabolism
host pathogen interaction
signalling

Experimental organism
T. gondii
apicomplexans
kinetoplastids

Competing interests statement
Dominique Soldati-Favre currently receives funding from the European Research Council and from the Swiss National Science Foundation. She is editor for Parasitology at Molecular Microbiology and she is on the editorial boards of PLOS Pathogens, Traffic and mBio.
Kenton J Swartz

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, United States

Kenton Swartz has been a Senior Investigator in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke within the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland since 2003. He obtained a BS in Chemistry and Biology from Eastern Mennonite College in 1986 and a PhD in Neurobiology from Harvard Medical School in 1993, where he worked with Bruce Bean studying the regulation of voltage-gated calcium channels by G-proteins and protein kinases. He obtained postdoctoral training with Roderick MacKinnon at Harvard Medical School, where he began isolating and studying toxins that interact with voltage-activated potassium channels. His laboratory uses biochemical, molecular biological, biophysical and structural techniques to understand how ion channel proteins sense critical biological stimuli, including membrane voltage, temperature, and both chemical and mechanical signals. He received an NIH Directors Award for Scientific Achievement in 2008, an NIH Office of the Director Honor Award on behalf of the Diversity Task Force in 2011 and the Kenneth S. Cole Award from the Biophysical Society in 2017. He has also served as the president of the Society of General Physiologists.

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Neuroscience
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
ion channel structure
ion channel mechanisms
ion channel physiology
ion channel pharmacology

Experimental organism
mouse

Competing interests statement
Kenton Swartz is employed by the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health. In addition to serving as a Senior Editor at eLife, he has served as a Reviewing Editor for eLife and as an Associate Editor at the Journal of General Physiology. He also teaches yoga at LifeTime Athletic.
Cynthia Wolberger

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States

Cynthia Wolberger is a Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, whose faculty she joined in 1991. She received her AB in Physics from Cornell University and her PhD in Biophysics from Harvard University, where she did thesis work on the structural basis of protein-DNA interactions under the guidance of Steve Harrison and Mark Ptashne. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco with Bob Stroud, she worked on the crystal structures of homeodomain-DNA complexes in the laboratory of Carl Pabo at Johns Hopkins. Her earlier worked focused on the structural basis for combinatorial regulation of gene expression and the molecular mechanisms of the sirtuin family of protein deacetylases. Her current research centers on the mechanisms by which ubiquitin plays a signaling role in transcription and the DNA damage response. Wolberger was a recipient of the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, a March of Dimes–Basil O’Conor Starter Scholar Award, and an American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Award, and was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator from 1994–2014. She received the Protein Society’s Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Award and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Wolberger is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
ubiquitin
chromatin
transcription
post-translational modifications
histone-modifying enzymes

Competing interests statement
Cynthia Wolberger receives funding from the National Institutes of Health , the US–Israel Binational Science Foundation, and the Emerson Collective. She serves on the scientific advisory boards of Thermo Fisher Scientific and the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany. She is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Protein Science, the Editorial Boards of Structure and Current Opinion in Structural Biology, and is a Faculty of 1000 section head in Transcription and Translation.

Reviewing editors

Amy Andreotti

Iowa State University, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
NMR spectroscopy
kinase regulation
cell signalling
Tec family kinases

Experimental organism
human
Hossein Ardehali

Northwestern University, United States

Expertise
Medicine
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
mitochondria
iron
glucose metabolism
mRNA-binding proteins
hexokinases
metabolism
cardiac biology
Nir Ben-Tal

Tel Aviv University, Israel

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Evolutionary Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
computational structural biology
structural biology
structural bioinformatics
protein universe
primordial peptides
membrane proteins
transporters
drug discovery
Anton M Bennett

Yale University, United States

Expertise
Cell Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology

Research focus
cell signalling
metabolism
protein tyrosine phosphorylation
protein tyrosine kinases
protein tyrosine phosphatases
James Berger

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
x-ray crystallography
electron microscopy
biochemistry
biophysics
DNA replication
ATPase mechanism
DNA topology
topoisomerases
helicases

Experimental organism
B. subtilis
D. melanogaster
E. coli
human
S. cerevisiae
Douglas L Black

University of California, Los Angeles, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
RNA splicing
alternative splicing
RNA binding proteins
post-transcriptional gene regulation
neuronal gene expression
neuronal development
polypyrimidine tract binding proteins
Rbfox proteins

Experimental organism
mammalian cells
mouse
ES cell models
Amie K Boal

Pennsylvania State University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
bioinorganic chemistry
enzymes
microbial chemistry
x-ray crystallography
Michael R Botchan

University of California, Berkeley, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
DNA replication
DNA repair

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Agnieszka Chacinska

University of Warsaw, Poland

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology

Research focus
biogenesis
organelles
mitochondria
protein transport
proteasome
protein degradation
protein synthesis

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
mammalian cells
nematode
Pimchai Chaiyen

Vidyasirimedhi Institute of Science and Technology (VISTEC), Thailand

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
Enzyme
flavin
mechanism
biocatalysis
metabolic engineering
bioluminescence

Experimental organism
E. coli
Pseudomonas
Lydia Contreras

The University of Texas at Austin, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
bacteria
regulatory RNAs
sRNAs
bacterial regulation
epitranscriptomics
RNA modifications
Ben Cravatt

Scripps Research Institute, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
chemical biology
proteomics
neurochemistry
pharmacology

Experimental organism
human
mouse
Qiang Cui

Boston University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
molecular dynamics
hybrid quantum
classical simulations
enzyme catalysis
allostery
protein dynamics
membrane remodeling
Laura Dassama

Stanford University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
bacterial multidrug resistance
chemoenzymatic syntheses
beta-hemoglobinopathies
Irwin Davidson

Institut de Genetique et de Biologie Moleculaire et Cellulaire, CNRS/INSERM/UDS, France

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
transcription
chromatin
genomics
cancer

Experimental organism
human
mouse
Roger J Davis

University of Massachusetts Medical School, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology
Cell Biology

Research focus
diabetes
NAFLD
NASH
metabolism
insulin resistance
cancer
signal transduction

Experimental organism
mouse
human
Ivan Dikic

Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Cancer Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
ubiquitination
autophagy
ER remodelling
infection
virus
bacteria
cancer

Experimental organism
mouse
C. elegans
S. cerevisiae
David Drew

University of Stockholm, Sweden

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
membrane transporters
x-ray crystallography
cryo-EM
membrane protein biotechnology
bioenergetics
solute carrier (SLC) transport
Stephen C Ekker

Mayo Clinic, United States

Expertise
Developmental Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
gene editing
morpholinos
transposons
mitochondria
health engineering

Experimental organism
zebrafish
Aaron Frank

University of Michigan, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
molecular modeling
biophysics
structural biology
computation
RNA biochemistry
RNA structural biology
Adam Frost

University of California, San Francisco, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology

Research focus
cryo-EM
electron cryo-microscopy
membranes
membrane remodeling
proteostasis
stress responses
translation
mitochondria
nuclear envelope
intracellular trafficking
Karine A Gibbs

Harvard University, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
Proteus mirabilis
sociomicrobiology
bacterial genetics
kin discrimination
self/non-self recognition
Ruben Gonzalez

Columbia University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
translation
translational control
ribosomes
RNA
tRNA
single-molecule biophysics
single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer
cryo-EM
biochemistry
live cell imaging

Experimental organism
B. subtilis
E. coli
human
S. cerevisiae
Rebekah L. Gundry

University of Nebraska Medical Center, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Research focus
mass spectrometry
cell surface glycoproteins
proteomics
glycomics
heart failure
stem cell derived cardiomyocytes
biomarkers
Iqbal Hamza

University of Maryland, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
metals
anemia
iron
heme

Experimental organism
mouse
C. elegans
parasites
Franz-Ulrich Hartl

Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, Germany

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
protein folding
molecular chaperones
neurodegenerative disorders
Heedeok Hong

Michigan State University, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
membrane proteins
membrane protein folding
membrane protein stability
rhomboid proteases
ATP-dependent proteolysis
AAA+
GlpG
FtsH
Pankaj Kapahi

Buck Institute for Research on Aging, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
aging
age-related diseases
nutrient signaling
metabolism
inflammation

Experimental organism
C. elegans
D. melanogaster
E. coli
mouse
Mary B Kennedy

California Institute of Technology, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
synaptic plasticity
synaptic regulation
biochemical signal transduction networks
systems biology

Experimental organism
mouse
rat
Daniel J Kliebenstein

University of California, Davis, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Ecology
Genetics and Genomics
Plant Biology

Research focus
genetics
genomics
transcriptomics
metabolomics
pathogen
plant metabolism
fitness

Experimental organism
A. thaliana
B. cinerea
eudicots
Benoît Kornmann

University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
membrane contact sites
mitochondria
membrane dynamics
membrane trafficking
phospholipids

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
David M Kramer

Michigan State University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Plant Biology
Physics of Living Systems
Computational and Systems Biology

Research focus
photosynthesis
bioenergetics
electron and proton transfer
computation
phenotyping
phenomics
Yamuna Krishnan

University of Chicago, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
nucleic acid-based molecular devices
DNA machines
chemical biology
synthetic biology
bioengineering

Experimental organism
C. elegans
Andrew C Kruse

Harvard Medical School, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
signal transduction
G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR)
membrane proteins
x-ray crystallography
molecular pharmacology
yeast surface display
Karsten Kruse

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Physics of Living Systems

Research focus
cell migration
cell signalling
theoretical biology
molecular evolution
Tatiana G Kutateladze

University of Colorado School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
epigenetics
chromatin
protein structure
NMR spectroscopy
molecular mechanisms

Experimental organism
human
Ashish Lal

National Institutes of Health, United States

Expertise
Cancer Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
RNA biology
lncRNAs
microRNAs
gene regulation
cancer biology
p53

Experimental organism
human
Joanne Lemieux

University of Alberta, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
protease
intramembrane protease
crystallography
membrane proteins
structural biology
Hening Lin

Cornell University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology

Research focus
sirtuin
PARP
diphthamide
post-translational modifications
proteomics
Sebastian Lourido

Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Cell Biology
Genetics and Genomics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
calcium signaling
host-pathogen interactions
genetic screening
protein kinases
genomics
quantitative proteomics
Apicomplexan parasites

Experimental organism
T. gondii
P. falciparum
Andrei Lupas

Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Computational and Systems Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Evolutionary Biology

Research focus
bacterial surface proteins
bioinformatics
coiled coils
protein design
protein evolution
protein structure
transmembrane signal tranduction
Kristen W Lynch

University of Pennsylvania, United States

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
RNA
post-transcriptional gene regulation
RNA silencing
RNA binding proteins
Merritt Maduke

Stanford University School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
ion channels
transporters
structure function
electrophysiology
ultrasound neuromodulation
pharmacology
membrane proteins
structural dynamics

Experimental organism
E. coli
mouse
Koyeli Mapa

Shiv Nadar University, India

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
proteostasis
chaperones
stress response
unfolded protein response
heat shock proteins
mitochondria
protein folding

Experimental organism
yeast
human cells
E. coli
Andreas Martin

University of California, Berkeley, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
AAA+ ATPases
protein degradation
proteostasis
ATPase mechanism
protein folding
Malcolm J McConville

University of Melbourne, Australia

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
protozoan parasites
metabolomics
metabolism
Leishmaniasis
trypanosomatids
glycobiology

Experimental organism
T. gondii
Hitoshi Nakatogawa

Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Expertise
Cell Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
molecular mechanisms of autophagy
protein/organelle degradation
membrane dynamics

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
Geeta Narlikar

University of California, San Francisco, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
chromatin
heterochromatin spread
chromatin remodeling machines
phase-separation
Hannes Neuweiler

University of Würzburg, Germany

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
protein folding
protein dynamics
protein engineering
fluorescence spectroscopy
fluorescence probes
kinetics
single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy
Timothy Nilsen

Case Western Reserve University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression

Research focus
mRNA processing
mechanism of miRNA function
RNA protein interactions
mRNP composition and function
RNA biology

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
Kassandra Ori-McKenney

University of California , United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Neuroscience

Research focus
microtubules
microtubule-associated proteins
microtubule motors
tau neurofibrillary tangles
neurodegeneration

Experimental organism
D. melanogaster
mammalian cell culture
Kim Orth

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
Vibrio
T3SS
virulence pathogenesis
host-pathogen
AMPylation
Fic-domain

Experimental organism
Vibrio spp
Rohit V Pappu

Washington University in St Louis, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
biophysics
intrinsically disordered proteins
intracellular phase transition phenomena
organization of proteins and nucleic acids
Maddy Parsons

King's College London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology
Cell Biology
Physics of Living Systems

Research focus
adhesion
migration
cytoskeleton
receptor signalling
extracellular matrix
fibrosis
cancer

Experimental organism
mouse
Federico Pelisch

University of Dundee, United Kingdom

Expertise
Cell Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
meiosis
SUMO
phosphorylation
ubiquitin
oocytes
chromosome segregation

Experimental organism
C. elegans
Jon Pines

Institute of Cancer Research, University College London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology

Research focus
cyclins and anaphase promoting complex/cycosome (APC/C)
cell cycle
mitosis
spindle assembly checkpoint

Experimental organism
human
Stephan Pless

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
ion channels
pharmacology
electrophysiology
biophysics
chemical biology
non-canonical amino acids
protein engineering
neurobiology
Owen Pornillos

University of Virginia, United States

Expertise
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
higher-order assembly
cell-free reconstitution
retrovirus structure
tripartite motif proteins
Arun Radhakrishnan

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
lipid sensors
cholesterol
sphingomyelin
cholesterol transport
SREBP
Scap
cholesterol homeostasis
endoplasmic reticulum

Experimental organism
E. coli
human
mouse
Michael Rape

University of California, Berkeley, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Developmental Biology

Research focus
ubiquitin
quality control
protein aggregation
mitochondria
proteasome

Experimental organism
human
mouse
Frank Raushel

Texas A&M University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
bioorganic chemistry
enzyme catalysis
chemical biology
enzyme engineering
Janice L Robertson

Washington University in St. Louis, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Computational and Systems Biology
Physics of Living Systems
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
membrane protein folding
computational modeling
oligomerization
membrane transport
driving forces
lipids
Marina V Rodnina

Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Germany

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
translation
ribosomes
tRNA
translation fidelity
cotranslational protein folding
recoding
translation factors
translation regulation
Rajan Sankaranarayanan

CSIR – Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, India

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
crystal structure
mechanism
translation of genetic code
proofreading
editing
tRNA synthetase

Experimental organism
E. coli
Nima Sharifi

Cleveland Clinic, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology
Medicine

Research focus
steroid biochemistry
steroid metabolism
prostate cancer
nuclear receptors
hormone therapy resistance
androgens
oncology

Experimental organism
mouse
Akira Shinohara

Osaka University, Japan

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Cell Biology

Research focus
recombination
DSB repair
meiosis
chromosome
DNA damage response

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
human
mouse
Gustavo Monteiro Silva

Duke University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
ubiquitin
oxidative stress
translation
proteomics

Experimental organism
human
mouse
S. cerevisiae
Jungsan Sohn

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Immunology and Inflammation
Microbiology and Infectious Disease

Research focus
innate immunity
inflammasomes
X-ray crystallography
cryo-EM
biochemistry
enzyme kinetics
Maria Spies

University of Iowa, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
single-molecule biophysics
DNA repair
DNA replication
DNA recombination
genome stability
protein dynamics
protein-nucleic acids interactions
drug discovery

Experimental organism
human
yeast
bacteria
Jonathan P Staley

University of Chicago, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
splicing
spliceosome
intron
exon
splice site
co-transcriptional

Experimental organism
budding yeast
mammalian cell culture
Randy B Stockbridge

University of Michigan, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
ion channels
transporters
microbial membrane proteins
crystallography
electrophysiology

Experimental organism
E. coli
Thomas Surrey

The Francis Crick Institute, United Kingdom

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
cytoskeleton
spindle assembly
cell division
motor proteins
microtubules
self-organization
active networks

Experimental organism
human
Ivan Topisirovic

Jewish General Hospital, Canada

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology
Cell Biology

Research focus
mRNA translation
signaling
metabolic regulation
protein quality control

Experimental organism
mouse
human
Mohamed Trebak

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, United States

Expertise
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Cell Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
calcium channels
receptor signalling
ion channel regulation
vascular remodeling
smooth muscle
Eric J Wagner

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, United States

Expertise
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cancer Biology
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
RNA biology
transcription
RNA processing
gene expression
Oliver Weichenrieder

Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Germany

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
retrotransposition
regulatory mRNA
x-ray crystallography
structural biology
William I Weis

Stanford University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
cell adhesion
wnt signaling
X-ray crystallography
structural biology

Experimental organism
C. elegans
Dictyostelium
human
mouse
Julie P I Welburn

University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
mitosis
cytoskeleton
motors
phosphorylation
kinase
microtubule
cilia
kinetochore

Experimental organism
human
in vitro
Raymund Wellinger

Université de Sherbrooke, Canada

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Genetics and Genomics

Research focus
chromosome biology
DNA replication
telomeres
telomerase
yeast cell biology

Experimental organism
yeast
mouse
Jie Xiao

Johns Hopkins University, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Chromosomes and Gene Expression
Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Physics of Living Systems
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
single molecule biophysics
microbiology
cell division
cell wall
gene expression

Experimental organism
E. coli
Gary Yellen

Harvard Medical School, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Physics of Living Systems

Research focus
neuronal metabolism
control of energy metabolism
fluorescent biosensors
metabolic control of excitability

Experimental organism
mouse
Ahmet Yildiz

University of California, Berkeley, United States

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Physics of Living Systems

Research focus
dynein
kinesin
myosin
intraflagellar transport

Experimental organism
human
yeast
Chlamydomonas
Giulia Zanetti

Birkbeck, University of London, United Kingdom

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Cell Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
membrane trafficking
coat proteins
COPII
membrane remodeling
structural biology
cryo-EM
cryo-ET
subtomogram averaging

Experimental organism
S. cerevisiae
Mingjie Zhang

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong SAR China

Expertise
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
Structural Biology and Molecular Biophysics

Research focus
postsynaptic density
synaptic signaling
scaffold proteins
liquid-liquid phase separation
biological condensates
Qing Zhang

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, United States

Expertise
Cancer Biology
Biochemistry and Chemical Biology

Research focus
CRISPR
cancer metabolism
hypoxia
kidney cancer
breast cancer
epigenetics
post-translational modifications
synthetic lethality