Stimulate discovery | Advance knowledge | Improve health

This mission is led by our multidisciplinary faculty-led laboratories that conduct research in molecular biology, cell biology, genetics, plant sciences, biomedical engineering, computational biology, and chemistry and chemical biology, and microbiology.

Battling Disease

The Lammerding group’s ultimate goal is to develop novel therapies against devastating diseases. Major research areas include identifying the pathogenic mechanisms for muscular dystrophy and heart disease and to understand how metastatic cancer cells are able to spread through the body. Their focus is studying how human cells and tissues respond to mechanical forces, and how defects in this process cause human diseases. View impact.

Outsmarting Infection

The Doerr lab is fighting antibiotic resistance by studying how bacteria sense and survive treatments that humans often use to kill harmful bacteria, such as antibiotic medications and components of the human immune system. By understanding how bacteria do this, new targets for the development of antibiotics can be found to help our body fight infections. View impact.

Unpacking Cell Behavior

The Baskin lab studies how human cells produce fatty molecules called lipids and use them to form membranes that act as barriers to separate the inside from outside of cells and their many internal compartments. They also study how certain lipid molecules can affect healthy and aberrant cell behavior, such as proliferation and migration, as occurs in primary and metastatic cancers. View impact.

Protecting DNA

The Smolka lab studies how cells protect DNA—our genetic blueprint. With research revealing how DNA damage contributes to cancer and reproductive disorders, these discoveries are paving the way for more targeted cancer therapies that selectively eliminate cancer cells while sparing healthy ones. In parallel, the lab investigates the biology of fertility to uncover new insights that could lead to innovative contraceptives and treatments for infertility. View impact.

Decoding Neurodegeneration

The Hu lab explores how changes at the molecular and cellular levels contribute to dementia—like ALS, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s—as people age. In particular, the lab is interested in how alterations in cellular clearance pathways affect brain health. This research hopes to bring scientists closer to understanding the root causes of neurodegenerative diseases—and how to treat them. View impact.

Harnessing Bio-Inspired Design

The Roeder lab studies how plant leaves and flowers grow to the right size and shape, which is important not only for agriculture, but also has applications in bio-inspired design for architecture. They study how plant cells coordinate their growth to ensure that they optimally capture light for photosynthesis, which is important for crops to maximize production. View impact.

Uncovering Molecular Logic

The Fromme lab investigates how cells are organized and why this organization is important for life. Specifically, this interest focuses on how proteins and membranes are trafficked within eukaryotic cells, are fundamental to life, providing the basis for complex organisms and enabling the evolution of multicellularity. This knowledge is critical for understanding many different diseases and for developing treatments. View impact.

Disarming Pathogens

The Crane group studies how living organisms interact with light and energy in their environment to optimize growth and behavior. In humans, these processes influence circadian rhythms, mental health and sleep patterns. In pathogens, they are critical for infection. View impact.

Analyzing Pathogen Interactions

The Mao lab studies how a bacterial intracellular pathogen infects its host. They examine and explain the mechanisms of how the pathogen utilizes its encoded effectors proteins to hijack host cellular pathways. This focus is important to better understanding mutations within a variety of human hereditary diseases. View impact.

Examining Cellular Machines

The Yu lab studies how cellular machines are formed by a combination of proteins, DNA, RNA, and metabolites. They develop cutting-edge technologies using the latest artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and experimental techniques to examine the dynamics of these cellular machines across human populations, and in health and disease. View impact.

Understanding How Cells Sort Biological Molecules

The Emr lab studies how biological molecules are sorted to different locations within the cell where they are needed to do their work. The Emr lab showed that fat molecules in the membrane act like shipping labels that can be read by special molecular complexes to send molecules to precise destinations. They also study how biological molecules are cleared from the cell when they are no longer required. These fundamental mechanisms impact all levels of human biology and disease. View impact.

Studying Nerve Cell Life and Loss

The Han group studies the growth and death of nerve cells. Different nerve cells grow intricate dendrite trees of different shapes to properly receive information from the environment or from other nerve cells. Incorrect shapes of dendrite trees are linked to autism and intellectual disabilities. They also study how sick nerve cells are detected by and cleared. When this process goes awry, neurodegeneration ensues. View impact.

The Underlying Structure of The Cell

The Bretscher lab studies the cell’s skeleton, how it provides structure and gives specific cells types their unique properties. They are also interested in how the skeleton participates in the trafficking of cellular components and organizes the cell’s content for division. Their work has impacts understanding of how organisms grow and develop as well as lose control of growth in diseases like cancer. View impact.