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Biochemistry

  • Carmela R. Abraham, PhD (cabraham@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: The molecular mechanisms leading to normal brain aging and the pathological processes that culminate in Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Catherine E. Costello, PhD (cecmsms@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: To establish the detailed structures of biopolymers in order to understand their structure-activity relationships as they influence or reflect biological processes related to health, growth and development, and disease.
  • Stephen R. Farmer, PhD (farmer@biochem.bumc.bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Identifying the mechanisms regulating the formation and function of white and brown adipocytes (fat cells) using a variety of experimental approaches including overexpression and knock down of specific nuclear factors that we consider to be likely regulators of these processes in cells in culture as well as in mice.
  • Mikel Garcia-Marcos, PhD (mgm1@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Our laboratory is interested in investigating how signaling via trimeric G proteins controls cell behavior in health and disease.
  • David A. Harris, MD, PhD (daharris@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying human and animal prion diseases.
  • Konstantin V. Kandror, PhD (kkandror@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Dissection of the “Glut4 pathway” in various insulin-sensitive cells.
  • Kathrin H. Kirsch, PhD (kirschk@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Delineating molecular mechanisms that are important for the tumor initiation and progression, with a specific focus on the expanding family of cytoplasmic adapter proteins.
  • Matthew D. Layne, PhD (mlayne@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Understand the transcriptional control of genes, which are upregulated in the vascular smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts in cardiovascular and pulmonary disease.
  • Zhijun Luo, PhD (zluo@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Understand how protein phosphorylation regulates cell growth and metabolism, and how its alteration causes diseases such as cancer and metabolic disorders.
  • Matthew A. Nugent, PhD (mnugent@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: How growth factors and the extracellular matrix interact to control mammalian cells with particular focus on how the large class of heparin-binding growth factors are regulated by heparin and heparan sulfate proteoglycans.
  • Valentina Perissi, PhD (vperissi@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: The major goal of our lab is to investigate the transcriptional and non-transcriptional functions of various cofactors with a particular focus on their misregulation during disease states such as cancer, diabetes, and other inflammatory disorders.
  • Paul F. Pilch, PhD (ppilch@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Study aspects of adipocyte and muscle cell biology to understand the interplay between glucose and fat metabolism as well as the interplay between adipocytes and muscle required for overall metabolic homeostasis.
  • Peter Polgar, PhD (peterp@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Study of mechanisms involved in the development of hypertension and the accompanying fibrosis in the heart and lung and the contributions of the angiotensin II, AT1, endothelin ETA and ETB, and prostanoid receptors to the process.
  • Brigitte Ritter, PhD (britter@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Receptor trafficking in health and disease.
  • Barbara Schreiber, PhD (schreibe@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Demonstrating the role of aortic smooth muscle cells in atherosclerosis.
  • Michael Y. Sherman, PhD (sherma1@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the central role of the heat shock protein Hsp72 in cancer.
  • Elizabeth R. Simons, PhD (esimons@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Stimulation by organisms which evade the normal phagocytic killing processes and therefore remain vital (e.g., mycobacteria such as M. tuberculosis).
  • Barbara D. Smith, PhD (bdsmith@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: To establish a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the control of collagen gene expression associated with tumor formation, inflammation, atherosclerosis, and fibrosis.
  • Phillip J. Stone, PhD (pjstone@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Currently partnering with a company in Cambridge to design and test elastase inhibitors for treatment of pulmonary emphysema.
  • Karen Symes, PhD (symes@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Determine the molecular mechanisms that control cell movements using Xenopus embryos as a model system.
  • Paul Toselli, MD, PhD (toselli@biochem.bumc.bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Fosters the goals of the Biochemistry Department by assisting faculty and graduate students in the transmission electron microscopic and light microscopic analyses of in vitro, transgenic, and gene “knock-out” animal models for examining diseases such as atherosclerosis, breast cancer, and male infertility.
  • Vickery Trinkaus-Randall, PhD (vickery@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: How epithelial wound repair occurs and are interested in the regulation of purinergic and EGF receptors; studying a disease called systemic amyloidosis, which is ultimately a disease resulting in misfolded proteins; produce 3-dimensional organ corneal constructs that are evaluated using a multidisciplinary approach including biochemical, morphological and engineering technologies.
  • Bob Varelas (xvarelas@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Understand the molecular mechanisms underlying the relay of information between a cell and its surroundings/neighbors.
  • Joseph Zaia, PhD (jzaia@bu.edu)
    Research Focus: Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are linear oligosaccharides attached to proteoglycan core proteins in virtually every animal species and tissue and the group develops new bioanalytical methods to meet the emerging needs of biomedicine related to GAG function and is building a structural understanding of the roles of GAG during development, adult physiological processes, and disease states.

Other Primary Faculty

Teaching Faculty

  • Peter Brecher, PhD, Professor
  • Carl Franzblau, PhD, Professor
  • Keith Tornheim, PhD, Associate Professor
  • Abdulmaged M. Traish, PhD, Professor (joint with Urology)

Adjunct Faculty

  • Gail E. Sonenshein, PhD (Tufts)
  • Theresa A. Davies, PhD (Graduate Medical Sciences)
  • Zhi-Xiong (Jim) Xiao, PhD (Sichuan University)
  • Peter O’Connor, PhD (Warwick University, UK)

Affiliated Faculty

  • Richard E. Fine, PhD (Bedford VA)

Emeritus Faculty

  • Judith A. Foster, PhD
  • Herbert Kagan, PhD

Research Faculty

Joint Faculty

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Beyond the Bulletin