Faculty
PROFESSOR & CHAIR, BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY
Arthur F. and Helen P. Koskinas Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Phamacology
C. Robert Matthews, PhD - Investigation of structures and the dynamics of structural changes in biological molecules in solution, in particular, the mechanisms by which proteins fold to unique conformations; studies on the effects of single amino acid substitutions on the folding process; folding mechanisms of multi subunit peptides and proteins; protein engineering.
PROFESSOR & VICE-CHAIR, BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY
Reid Gilmore , PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Molecular mechanism of protein translocation across the endoplasmic reticulum; analysis of asparagine-linked glycosylation in the endoplasmic reticulum.
DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES
Anthony Carruthers, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Mechanisms of glucose transport and glucose transport regulation.
ASSOCIATE DEAN OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES
Kendall L. Knight, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Genetic recombination and homologous recombinational DNA repair in human cells: Rad51-mediated DNA double-strand break repair.
GRADUATE DIRECTOR
Charles G. Sagerström, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Developmental neurobiology; molecular and genetic analysis of hindbrain formation.
DIRECTOR, PROGRAM IN BIOINFORMATICS & INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGY (BIB)
Zhiping Weng, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - To explore and understand biological data through the application and development of computational tools. BIB 
DIRECTOR, PROGRAM IN CHEMICAL BIOLOGY
Tariq M. Rana, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Architecture and function of molecular assemblies involved in RNAi and HIV replication. Small Molecule Screening Facility (SMSF)
GRETCHEN STONE COOK PROFESSOR OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES
Phillip D. Zamore, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Control of mRNA stability and translation in development; molecular mechanisms of RNAi (post-transcriptional gene silencing).
VITOLD ARNETT PROFESSOR OF CELL BIOLOGY
Thoru Pederson, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Eukaryotic gene expression at the level of RNA processing; RNA protein interactions and RNA traffic.
PROFESSORS
Sumner H. Burstein, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Regulation of anandamide biosynthesis; signal transduction events involved in cannabinoid-induced arachidonate release.
Anthony Carruthers, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Mechanisms of glucose transport and glucose transport regulation.
Reid Gilmore, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Molecular mechanism of protein translocation across the endoplasmic reticulum; analysis of asparagine-linked glycosylation in the endoplasmic reticulum.
Kendall L. Knight, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Genetic recombination and homologous recombinational DNA repair in human cells: Rad51-mediated DNA double-strand break repair.
Martin G. Marinus, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Mechanism and specificity of DNA mismatch repair; drug resistance and DNA mismatch repair; function of methylated bases in nucleic acids.
C. Robert Matthews, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Investigation of structures and the dynamics of structural changes in biological molecules in solution, in particular, the mechanisms by which proteins fold to unique conformations; studies on the effects of single amino acid substitutions on the folding process; folding mechanisms of multi subunit peptides and proteins; protein engineering.
John R. McCullough, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Pharmacology and pathophysiology of cardiovascular, pulmonary and urogenital systems; pharmacology of antihistamines, muscarinic antagonists and ion channel modulators; drug-induced cardiac arrhythmias; drug discovery and development; pharmacology education.
Melissa J. Moore, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (Biochemistry & Molecular Phamacology) - Pre-mRNA splicing and its connections to intracellular mRNA localization, translation, and degradation.
Thoru Pederson, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Eukaryotic gene expression at the level of RNA processing; RNA protein interactions and RNA traffic.
Tariq M. Rana, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Architecture and function of molecular assemblies involved in RNAi and HIV replication. Small Molecule Screening Facility (SMSF)
Alonzo H. Ross, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - PTEN tumor suppressor and phosphataidylinositol phosphatase, CNS stem cells and neural tumors.
William E. Royer Jr. , PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - X-ray crystallographic imaging of macromolecular structures; structural basis for intersubunit communication and macromolecular interactions.
Celia A. Schiffer, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – How conformational adaptability affects molecular recognition in drug resistant variants of HIV protease; tools are phage display, x-ray crystallography and molecular dynamics calculations.
Zhiping Weng, PhD (Director, Program in Bioinformatics and Integrative Biology, Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - To explore and understand biological data through the application and development of computational tools. BIB
Zuoshang Xu, MD, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Structure, transport and function of neuronal cytoskeleton; neurodegenerative disease.
Phillip D. Zamore, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Control of mRNA stability and translation in development; molecular mechanisms of RNAi (post-transcriptional gene silencing).
ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS
Charles G. Sagerström, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Developmental neurobiology; molecular and genetic analysis of hindbrain formation.
William R. Kobertz, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Structure, function and modulation of ion channels.
ASSISTANT PROFESSORS
Balaji Bhyravbhatla, PhD (Director of UMMS X-ray core facility; Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Protein-solvent interactions and computational methods development. UMMS X-Ray Core Facility
Dan Bolon, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - The role of molecular chaperones in biology and disease.
Job Dekker, PhD (Program in Gene Function and Expression, Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Spatial Organization of Genomes.
Francesca Massi , PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Protein dynamics , function and stability using NMR and computer simulation.
Stephen Miller, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Phamacology) - Chemical approaches to the study and control of cell biology.
Mary Munson, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Regulation of vesicle targeting and fusion.
Oliver J. Rando, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Role of chromatin structure in transcriptional control, and mechanism of inheritance of chromatin states; role of epigenetically inherited information in evolution, development, and disease.
Nick Rhind, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Checkpoint regulation in the fission yeast cell cycle.
Sean Ryder, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – RNA regulation in development and disease; regulatory networks, mechanism of specificity, and ribonucleoprotein complex assembly.
Scot Wolfe, PhD (Program in Gene Function and Expression, Biochemistry & Molecular Phamacology) – Targeted gene regulation using novel, designed transcription factors.
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS
James E. Evans, (Director of UMMS Proteomic & Mass Spectrometry Core Facility; Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Mass spectrometric methods of analysis, proteomics, lipid metabolism, chromatographic techniques, diagnostic methods for analysis of inborn errors of metabolism. Proteomic Mass Spectrometry Core Labs
Elisabet C. Mandon, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Molecular mechanisms that establish and maintain compartmentalization in living cells; protein sorting to the endoplasmic reticulum. See R. Gilmore's Lab for more information.
Joan C. Ritland, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Intranuclear transport of RNA; nucleolar organization and function. See T. Pederson's Lab for more information.
Sunny Tam, PhD (Proteomic Fractionation Group, Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Protein fractionation technology development and implementation for global proteome analysis of eukaryotic organism, targeted proteomics with affinity enrichment or protein labeling and protein microarray applications. Proteomic Fractionation Group
RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSORS
Akbar Ali, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Design, synthesis and structure-activity relationship studies of HIV-1 protease inhibitors active against multidrug-resistant (MDR) viruses. Synthesis and biological evaluation of small molecule inhibitors of PTEFb, and viral infectivity factor (Vif). See T. Rana’s Lab for more information.
Osman Bilsel, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Use of time-resolved fluorescence, excitation energy transfer and rapid mixing techniques to obtain structural information on protein folding intermediates in the microsecond to seconds time regime. See C.R. Matthews' Lab for more information.
Hong Cao, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - The small moleule screening facility (SMSF) assists researchers in developing high-throughput (HT) screening assays, performs HT screens of chemical libraries to identify new small molecules that can be used to proble biological processes of interest. Small Molecule Screening Facility also see T. Rana's Lab for more informaion.
John Leszyk, PhD (Director of Worcester Foundation Proteomic Mass Spectrometry Lab; Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Mass Spectrometric characterization of proteins of biological interest. Proteomic Mass Spectrometry Core Labs
Jill Zitzewitz, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – folding and assembly of multimeric proteins and peptides using stopped-flow circular dichroism and fluorescence spectroscopies. See C.R. Matthews' Lab for more information.
INSTRUCTORS
Daniel J. Kelleher, BA (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - N-linked protein glycosylation. Strucutre and function of Oligosaccharyltransferase from healthy protists to cells from human patients with Carbohydrate-Deficient-Glycoprotein-Syndrome (CDGS). See R. Gilmore's Lab for more information.
Moses Prabu, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) - Crystallographic studies to understand the molecular rationale behind how HIV-1 protease recognizes its homologous substrates. See C. Schiffer's Lab for more information.
JOINT UMMS FACULTY
Michael P. Czech, PhD (Professor and Director, Program in Molecular Medicine) - Transmembrane signaling mechanisms elicited by the insulin receptor tyrosine kinase related to membrane trafficking of glucose transporters.
Roger J. Davis, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine) - Signal transduction by the epidermal growth factor receptor; mechanisms by which growth factors regulate cellular proliferation.
Mark Dershwitz, MD, PhD (Professor, Anesthesiology) – Clinical pharmacology of intravenous anesthetics and antiemetics.
Stephen Doxsey, PhD (Associate Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine) - Mitotic and meiotic spindle assembly with an emphasis on centrosome structure, functions, and regulation.
Michael R. Green, MD, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator (Professor and Director, Program in Gene Function and Expression; Program in Molecular Medicine) - Eukaryotic gene function and expression.
Lawrence J. Hayward, MD, PhD (Assoiciate Professor, Neurology) – Mechanisms of motor neuron degeneration, neuromuscular ion channel disorders.
David G. Lambright, PhD (Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine) – Structural and molecular mechanisms of cell signaling and membrane trafficking.
Zdenka Matijasevic, PhD (Assistant Professor, Cell Biology) - DNA damage by antitumor and environmental alkylators; mechanisms of DNA repair; hypothermia and cell cycle.
Haley Melikian, PhD (Assistant Professor, Psychiatry) – Cocaine and antidepressant-sensitive monoamine transporters
Craig L. Peterson, PhD (Professor, Program in Molecular Medicine) - Roles of the SWI/SNF complex and chromatin in regulation of eukaryotic gene expression.
Lawrence J. Stern, PhD (Professor, Pathology) - Molecular recognition in the immune system.
Joint Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center for Mental Retardation Faculty
Omanand Koul, PhD, Research Associate Professor
DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR
Quentin Gibson, PhD (Biochemistry & Molecular Pharmacology) – Kinetic aspects of ligand binding to heme proteins.
ADJUNCT PROFESSORS
Alice Gardner, PhD (Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences)
George E. Wright, PhD (GLSynthesis)
EMERITUS FACULTY
Neal C. Brown, D.V.M., PhD
Frank J. Chlapowski, PhD
Jean-Pierre Flatt, PhD
Thomas B. Miller Jr., PhD
Carel Mulder, DPhil