Biological Chemistry
The intersection of Biology and Chemistry is one of the most exciting research areas today. Many research groups in the A&M Department of Chemistry are engaged in interdisciplinary research in the chemistry of biological systems. Structural biology and mechanistic enzymology are among the important areas of research. Other critical topics include cellular biosynthesis, genetic engineering of metabolic pathways, synthesis of potential pharmaceutical agents, recombinant DNA methods for creating novel proteins with enhanced properties and combinatorial chemistry for creating new molecules. The role of metal ions in biocatalysis and structure (bioinorganic chemistry) is another strong area of research. Since questions in biological chemistry often involve analytical, inorganic, organic, or physical topics, students of all backgrounds in chemistry are welcome to consider this area. We also have two special interdisciplinary initiatives, the Chemistry/Biology Interface and Molecular Biophysics training programs. Please feel free to contact any one of us or the Department of Chemistry Graduate Office for further information.
Barondeau, David P
barondeau@chem.tamu.edu
Associate Professor of Chemistry. B. A., 1989, Southern Utah State College. Ph.D. 1996, Texas A&M University. La Jolla Interfaces in Sciences Fellow 1997-1998; NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, 1998-2000; Senior Research Associate, 2002-2006, The Scripps Research Institute. Biological Chemistry. Bioinorganic chemistry, metal cofactor biosynthesis, post-translational modification chemistry, enzyme catalysis, protein crystallography.
Begley, Tadhg P
begley@chem.tamu.edu
Professor of Chemistry, B.S. National University of Ireland, 1977, California Institute of Technology, 1983. Biological, Organic, and Bioorganic chemistry. Mechanistic chemistry and enzymology of complex organic transformations, particularly those found on the vitamin biosynthetic pathways.
Hilty, Christian
chilty@chem.tamu.edu
Associate Professor of Chemistry. Diploma, 1999, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Ph.D., 2004, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich. Postdoctoral Fellow 2004-2006, University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Biophysical Chemistry. Protein structure and function, biological membranes, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), NMR methodology.
Johnson, Arthur
ajohnson@medicine.tamhsc.edu
E. L. Wehner-Welch Foundation Chair in Chemistry. Regents Professor. Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Distinguished Professor of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics. B. S., 1964, California Institute of Technology. Ph. D., 1973, University of Oregon. Helen Hay Whitney Fellow, 1974-1976, Columbia University. Biochemistry and Biophysical Chemistry. Molecular mechanisms involved in protein translocation across and integration into various membranes and in cell lysis by bacterial toxins; protein-membrane, protein-protein, and protein-RNA interactions; fluorescence spectroscopy and resonance energy transfer; photocrosslinking.
Lindahl, Paul A
lindahl@chem.tamu.edu
Professor of Chemistry. B. A., 1979, North Park College. Ph. D., 1985, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, 1985-87, University of Minnesota. Inorganic Chemistry. Bioinorganic chemistry; structures and functions of transition metal complexes in enzymes; spectroscopy (primarily electron paramagnetic resonance), redox processes, enzyme catalysis.
Liu, Wenshe
wliu@chem.tamu.edu
Associate Professor of Chemistry. B.S., 2000, Beijing University. Ph.D., 2005, University of California-Davis. Postdoctoral Fellow, 2005-2007, the Scripps Research Institute. Biological Chemistry. Protein-protein/DNA interaction network in living cells; Structures and functions of selenoproteins; Protein modification; Peptide library screening.
Macfarlane, Ronald D
macfarlane@chem.tamu.edu
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. B. A., 1954, University of Buffalo. M. S., 1957, Ph. D., 1959, Carnegie-Mellon University. Postdoctoral Fellow, 1959, University of California Berkeley. Analytical Chemistry. Application of modern techniques to the study of cardiovascular disease. Development of state-of-the-art analytical chemistry methodologies to contibute to the solution of important clinical problems.
Raushel, Frank M
raushel@chem.tamu.edu
Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Davidson Professor of Science. B. A., 1972, St. Thomas College. Ph. D., 1976, University of Wisconsin Madison. Postdoctoral Fellow, 1976-80, Pennsylvania State University. Biochemistry. Determination of enzyme reaction mechanisms and protein structure using kinetic, genetic, and magnetic resonance techniques.
Romo, Daniel
romo@tamu.edu
Professor of Chemistry. B. A., 1986, Texas A&M University. Ph. D., 1991, Colorado State University. American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellow, 1991-93, Harvard University. Organic Chemistry. Structure elucidation, total synthesis, and mode of actions studies of physiologically active natural products; synthetic methodology including asymmetric catalysis.
Sacchettini, James C
sacchett@tamu.edu
Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Chemistry. Ph.D. Washington University, St. Louis (1987).
Watanabe, Coran M H
watanabe@chem.tamu.edu
Associate Professor of Chemistry. B.S., 1992, University of Hawaii. Ph.D., 1998, The Johns Hopkins University. Howard Hughes Postdoctoral Fellow of the Life Sciences Foundation, 2002, The Scripps Research Institute. Bio-organic chemistry. Bio-engineering of natural product biosynthetic pathways. Cell-based screening, mRNA expression profiling (on a genome-wide scale), and structure elucidation of natural products.
Yang, Jiong
yang@chem.tamu.edu
Assistant Professor of Chemistry. B.S. 1994, M.S. 1997, Lanzhou University. M.S. 1999, New York University. Ph.D. 2003, Ohio State University. Postdoctoral Scholar, 2003-2004, The Scripps Research Institute. National Institutes of Health Kirschstein-NRSA Postdoctoral Fellow, 2005-2007, Harvard University and Broad Institute of Harvard & MIT. Organic Chemistry. Total synthesis of bioactive natural products. Development of new synthetic methods. Identification of small molecule probes for biological studies.