Faculty Hosting Undergraduate Research Students

Biochemistry at °®¶¹´«Ã½ is a program, not a department, so faculty who can host students are from different departments. Biochemistry research takes place in many different laboratories across the university. Many of the labs are listed below. In order to do an honors thesis, your work must relate to biochemistry in some way.

Chemistry Department

headshot of Susan Bane

Susan Bane

Professor; Biochemistry Program Director

Chemistry; Biochemistry Program

Research Interests

  • Chemical Biology
  • Microtubules
  • Molecular mechanism of Taxol chemotherapy
  • Site-specific fluorescent labeling of proteins
  • Molecular mechanisms of colchicine and related drugs
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headshot of Christof T. Grewer

Christof T. Grewer

Professor; Department Chair

Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Biophysical chemistry
  • Dynamics of the transport process
  • Development of pharmacological tools
  • Inhibitor synthesis and characterization
  • Computational studies
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headshot of Eriks Rozners

Eriks Rozners

Professor

Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Chemical approaches to control the function of regulatory RNAs
  • Non-ionic backbone-modified RNA analogs
  • Molecular recognition of folded RNA using Peptide Nucleic Acids (PNAs)
  • Triplex-forming PNAs to control function of SARS-CoV-2 RNA
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headshot of Sozanne Solmaz

Sozanne Solmaz

Associate Professor

Chemistry

Research Interests

  • Brain and muscle developmental diseases in infants, including spinal muscular atrophy
  • Roles of nuclear pore complexes in brain development
  • Structure-based design of therapies for Alzheimer’s disease
  • Cytoskeletal motors
  • Structural biology, x-ray crystallography, cryo-electron microscopy
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Biology Department

Anthropology Department

headshot of D.  Andrew Merriwether

D. Andrew Merriwether

Professor; Collegiate Professor for College in the Woods

Anthropology; Residential Life

Research Interests

  • Ancient DNA/PaleoGenomics
  • Molecular Anthropology
  • Peopling of the New World and The Pacific
  • Plant and Animal Domestication
  • Population Genetics/Phylogenetics
  • Forensic DNA
  • Molecular Epidemiology
  • Biomedical Anthropology
  • Evolutionary Biology/Molecular Evolution
  • Paleodemography
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Pharmacy School

headshot of Nathan Tumey

Nathan Tumey

Assistant Graduate Director and Associate Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research Interests

  • Medicinal chemistry
  • Targeted drug delivery
  • Antibody-drug conjugates
  • Auto-immune disease / inflammation
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headshot of Tracy Brooks

Tracy Brooks

Associate Professor and Vice Chair, Pharmaceutical Sciences; Menner Family Endowed Faculty Fellow

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research Interests

  • Oncology
  • Anti-cancer therapeutics
  • Drug target development
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headshot of Tony Davis

Tony Davis

Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research Interests

  • Natural products biosynthesis
  • Infectious diseases
  • Neurological disorders
  • Drug discovery and development
  • Chemical biology
  • Synthetic and medicinal chemistry
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headshot of Kuo-Ching (KC) Mei

Kuo-Ching (KC) Mei

Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research Interests

  • Therapeutic delivery (drug/gene/antigen/macromolecule)
  • Molecular pharmaceutics and Pharmacoengineering
  • Tumor immune microenvironment
  • Lipid nanoparticles, liposomes and lipid drug conjugates
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headshot of Tao Zhang

Tao Zhang

Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research Interests

  • Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling
  • In vitro and in vivo correlation
  • Drug transfer into milk, drug safety during breastfeeding
  • Gut microbiome, inflammation and colorectal cancer
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headshot of Katie Edwards

Katie Edwards

Assistant Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research Interests

  • Liposomal combination drug formulations
  • Thiamine deficiency and supplementation
  • Bioanalytical assay development
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