Faculty | cbc.arizona.edu

Faculty

Faculty participating in the program hold appointments in either the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, or the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

Faculty	Research Interests
Craig A. Aspinwall Chemistry/Biochemistry	Cellular Function at the Interface of Analytical Chemistry and Cell Physiology
Michael Brown Chemistry/Biochemistry	NMR spectroscopy; membrane proteins and lipid bilayers; receptors and biological signaling; vision
Eli Chapman Pharmacology and Toxicology	Protein-guided therapeutic discovery; Chemical biology to study p97 biochemistry and biophysics; Small-molecule based therapeutic discovery and development
Pascale Charest Chemistry/Biochemistry	Signaling mechanisms and directed cell motility
Matthew Cordes Chemistry/Biochemistry	Structural Evolution and Conformational Switching in Proteins
Xinxin Ding Pharmacology and Toxicology	Drug metabolism/disposition, enzyme function/regulation, drug safety/efficacy, and Genetic/enviromental risks for chemical toxicity
James Galligan Pharmacology and Toxicology	Studying cell metabolism and chromatin function
Indraneel Ghosh Chemistry/Biochemistry	Signal Transduction Pathways, Anti-Cancer Agents and Protein Based Biosensors
Michael Heien Chemistry/Biochemistry	Measuring neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Specifically to figure out how chemicals affext individual neurons and behavior. The goal of his research is to understand the molecular mechanisms behind synapse formation, the role of supporting cells in modulation of neurotransmission, and how these work to regulate behavior
Nancy Horton Chemistry/Biochemistry	Macromolecular structure and function; X-ray crystallography
Victor J. Hruby Chemistry/Biochemistry	Asymmetric Synthesis; Biologically Active Peptides/Mimetics; Conformation-Activity Relationships
Christopher Hulme Chemistry/Biochemistry	Enabling chemistries and platform technologies for the construction of targeted small molecule libraries that span possible applications across multiple target families
John Jewett Chemistry/Biochemistry	Chemical virology - Developing chemical tools to study dengue virus
Nam Lee Chemistry/Biochemistry	Metabolism, Signaling, and Regulation Protein and Membrane Biochemistry
Hongmin Li Pharmacology and Toxicology	Structural biology, X-ray crystallography, protein-protein interaction, target-based drug discovery, high throughput screening.
Michael Marty Chemistry/Biochemistry	Membrane proteins play a number of critical biochemical roles and make up the majority of drug targets. Despite their importance, membrane proteins remain challenging systems for analysis due to their amphipathic nature and low expression levels. Moreover, the lipid bilayer can play an important but largely unexplored role in regulating membrane protein structure and function. New analytical and biochemical methods are necessary to better understand and design drugs to target membrane proteins.
Katrina M. Miranda Chemistry/Biochemistry	Chemical Biology of Nitrogen Oxides; New Detection Techniques and Donors of Nitrogen Oxides; Drug Development
William R. Montfort Chemistry/Biochemistry	Protein structure, function and dynamics; X-ray crystallography
Jon Njardarson Chemistry/Biochemistry	Organic synthesis, medicinal chemistry and drug development
Aikseng Ooi Pharmacology and Toxicology	NRF2 signaling, Iron metabolism, Hereditary Leiomyomatosis and Renal Cell Cancer (HLRCC), Computational Biology.
Robin L. Polt Chemistry/Biochemistry	Cell-surface Carbohydrates
S. Scott Saavedra Chemistry/Biochemistry	Interfacial Optics, Biofilms, Biosensors
Rick Schnellmann Pharm/Tox - DDD	Identifying and developing drugs to treat acute kidney injury, diabetic kidney disease, stroke, spinal cord injury and Parkinson’s disease.
Catharine L. Smith Pharmacology and Toxicology	Epigenetic mechanisms of gene expression, their regulation through signaling pathways and modulation by anti-cancer drugs
Daekyu Sun Pharmacology and Toxicology	Regulation of gene expression with chemicals
Gregory Thatcher Pharmacology and Toxicology	Drug Discovery from design through clinical trials. Use of chemical, molecular, and structural biology tools to understand biomolecule targets and design small molecules to engage these targets in cell and animal models.
Thomas Tomasiak Chemistry/Biochemistry	Advanced structural approaches (x-ray crystallography and cryo-EM) and membrane protein stabilization techniques based on lipid nanodiscs to address pharmacological problems involving eukaryotic lipid and drug transporters.
Elisa Tomat Chemistry/Biochemistry	Biological inorganic chemistry of oxidative stress, wound healing, cell proliferation and cancer
Wei Wang Pharm/Tox - DDD	Organic synthesis, molecular imaging and recognition, chemical biology and medicinal chemistry (drug discovery)
Jun Wang Pharmacology and Toxicology	Medicinal chemistry and pharmacology of antivirals targeting emerging and re-emerging respiratory viruses including influenza virus, enterovirus D68, and coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2; Structure-based drug design targeting ion channels, protein-protein interactions, cysteine proteases and scaffold proteins.
Georg Wondrak Pharmacology and Toxicology	Molecular pathways of skin photocarcinogenesis that involve cellular photooxidative and carbonyl stress; Developing chemical reagents into potent drugs that target reactive chemical intermediates
Donna Zhang Pharmacology and Toxicology	The Nrf2/Keap1 signaling pathway that is activated by oxidative stress and chemopreventive compounds; Regulation of gene expression by the ubiquitination and proteasomal degradation pathway