Faculty Research

The Center faculty members have well-established research programs and are well funded for their research through both extramural and intramural grants. The nine Principal Investigators form a highly interactive group, and the Center is in the process of being expanded with two new Assistant Professors with complementary research strength.

Principal Investigators of the Center:

• John Spudich, Ph.D., Center Director
  Structure and function of photoactive membrane receptors and signal transduction triggered by light; rhodopsins and related heptahelical receptors.
  
  
• Peter Christie, Ph.D.
  Macromolecular transport across procaryotic and eucaryotic membranes; bacterial pathogenicity.
  
  
• Carmen Dessauer, Ph.D.
  G protein mediated signal transduction; regulation of adenylyl cyclase and production of cyclic AMP; regulators of G protein signaling (RGS proteins); relaxin.
  
  
• William Dowhan, Ph.D.
  Structure, function and assembly of cell membranes; lipid-assisted protein folding.
  
  
• Vasanthi Jayaraman, Ph.D.
  Structure and function of ligand gated ion channels; spectroscopic investigations of membrane proteins.
  
  
• Renhao Li, Ph.D.
  Structure/function and assembly of integrins; cell adhesion receptors; NMR
  
  
• John Putkey, Ph.D.
  Structural and molecular biology of calcium-signaling mechanisms including cardiac muscle contraction, Ca²⁺ channels, and calmodulin and regulators of calmodulin signaling.
  
  
• Henry Strobel, Ph.D.
  Cytochrome P-450-dependent drug and carcinogen metabolism system; neurobiology of drug action.
  
  
• Lei Zheng, Ph.D.
  Structural biology of membrane proteins; ion transport and regulation; X-ray Crystallography.