Boston University Department of Biology

Cell and Molecular Biology

The program in Cell and Molecular Biology includes a broad range of research opportunities in areas of contemporary molecular biology and cell biology, including developmental biology, cell signaling and gene regulation, apoptosis, cell cycle and DNA replication, cancer biology, metabolism and physiology, genomics of disease traits, and microbiology. A variety of approaches are utilized, including genetics, biochemistry, microscopy, and bioinformatics. Scientific questions are explored using a number of model systems covering the evolutionary spectrum, notably humans, mice, rats, sea urchins, zebrafish, frogs, fruit flies, sea anemones, plants, and microorganisms.

The computational approaches used in many research laboratories are bolstered by their affiliation with the graduate program in Bioinformatics. Interdisciplinary scientific interactions are provided as well through the graduate program in Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, & Biochemistry, which also includes faculty from the departments of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry, Physics, and Health Sciences.

Faculty with Related Research

• Gary Benson
  Algorithm development for DNA sequence analysis
• Cynthia Bradham
  Developmental biology; embryonic pattern formation; systems biology
• Gloria V. Callard
  Neuroendocrinology, reproductive and developmental endocrinology, estrogen biosynthesis, estrogen receptor mediated actions and gene regulation, environmental endocrine disruption
• John L. Celenza
  Plant development, defense, and metabolism; genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology
  
• Geoffrey M. Cooper
  Cancer, programmed cell death, signal transduction, gene expression
  
• William D. Eldred
  Visual neurobiology
• John Finnerty
  Evolution of development, developmental genetics, phylogenetics, evolutionary genomics, invertebrate zoology; coral conservation
• Horacio Frydman
  Host-microbe interactions at the molecular, cellular and organismal level; mechanisms of bacterial transmission through stem-cell niche infection
• Thomas Gilmore
  Molecular biology, cell biology, signal transduction, cancer, molecular ecology
• Ulla Hansen
  Cancer, cell cycle, gene expression regulation, cell signaling, proliferation, cell survival, transcriptional networks
• Robert E. Hausman
  Cell-cell interactions, cell adhesion complexes, contact-mediated regulation of gene expression
• Angela Ho
  Molecular and cellular basis of synaptic function and alzheimer’s disease
• Sir Hans Kornberg
  Nature and regulation of carbohydrate transport in micro-organisms
• Edward L. Loechler
  Molecular biology; mechanisms by which carcinogens cause mutations and cancer
• Hengye Man
  Synaptic plasticity, glutamate receptors, protein trafficking, axon growth and neuron polarization, bioenergetics, neurodegenerative disorders and neuronal death
• Kim McCall
  Drosophila developmental biology, cell death, oogenesis
• Frank Naya
  Cardiac development and disease, muscle regeneration, muscular dystrophy, mouse developmental biology, gene regulation
• Daniel Segrè
  Systems biology, evolution of biochemical networks, genomics, metabolic engineering, microbial ecology
• Trevor W. Siggers
  Systems biology of the immune and inflammatory systems, biochemistry, genomics, gene regulation
• Cassandra L. Smith
  Schizophrenia; breast cancer; molecular biotechnology and diagnosis; twin studies
• Sidney L. Tamm
  Cell biology and motility; cytoskeleton, nervous, and ionic control of cilia; protozoan motility; cell junctions
• Dean R. Tolan
  Biochemistry, enzymology, molecular and human genetics of enzymes in sugar metabolism
• David J. Waxman
  Genomic regulatory mechanisms; molecular endocrinology and cell signaling; angiogenesis and immune system in cancer therapy; environmental chemical epigenetics; bioinformatics
• Eric Widmaier
  Molecular and endocrine control of body weight; endocrinology and metabolism