Research Labs

Research labs in the department are extremely well equipped for the individual research needs of faculty and students with instruments dedicated to their individual research needs.

In addition, members of the department have access to state-of-the-art core facilities that house multi-user instruments and provide a variety of analytical services. The equipment includes HPLC’s, FPLC’s, steady-state fluorimeters, life-time fluorimeters with laser excitation, UV/VIS spectrophotometers, ultracentrifuges, high resolution magnets for structure determination and imaging, X-ray facilities, sophisticated computing systems for analyzing structural and imaging data as well as modeling, and thermocyclers in addition to standard molecular and biochemical equipment.

Bloom Lab

Our general research interests are in the dynamic protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions that are required to maintain the structure and to preserve the genetic integrity of DNA. 

Linda Bloom

Matt Gentry

Dr. Gentry is Director of the NIH-funded Lafora Epilepsy Cure Initiative (LECI). The LECI is a consortium of Lafora disease (LD) researchers from around the world funded by a NIH P01 (PI: Gentry) to define the basic mechanisms of LD and translate the findings into pre-clinical therapies.

Gentry Lab

Kladde Lab

The Kladde Lab focuses on understanding the dynamic interplay in transcription between various layers of epigenetic regulation, including nucleosome positioning, histone modifications, and DNA methylation.

Kladde Lab

McKenna Lab

The McKenna Lab centers on understanding the structure-function relationships which govern the multitude of intricate interactions required for successful host cell infection by ssDNA viruses.

R McKenna

Merritt Lab

Dr. Merritt’s Lab focus on developing methods for assessing metabolic turnover and energy metabolism, and how to apply these new technologies to diverse pathophysiologies including heart failure, cancer, and diabetes mellitus.

Dr. Matthew Merritt

Ramon Sun

Dr. Sun’s lab has developed a number of new mass spectrometry-based methodologies to profile and image complex carbohydrate molecules with single-cell sensitivity and fine spatial resolution to assess microenvironmental influences with sophisticated machine learning software suite for data analysis. 

Sun Lab

Xie Lab

The overarching goal of the Xie Lab research is to understand how non-coding RNAs and RBPs contribute to gene regulation in human health and disease. 

Xie