Primary Faculty

An asterisk (*) denotes faculty who participate in the Anti-Cancer Drug Development Training Program.

*J. Thomas August, M.D., Professor
Genetic immunotherapy of infectious diseases and cancer by targeting DNA encoded antigen chimeras to MHC II; MHC II antigen presentation; development of DNA vaccines; immune tolerance.

James C. Barrow, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Drug discovery for disorders of neurodeveloment.

*Philip A. Cole M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Director
Chemical and biochemical approaches in the study of signal transduction, circadian rhythm, and gene regulation.

*Robert J. Cotter, Ph.D., Professor
Development of new analytical techniques and instrumentation for mass spectrometry; applications of mass spectrometry to the structural analysis of peptides, glycopeptides, and glycolipids.

Albena Dinkova-Kostova, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Protection against cancer mechanisms and strategies; structure-activity relation of protective agents; inflammation and cancer; skin cancer prevention.

*Wade Gibson, Ph.D., Professor
Herpesvirus proteins: studies of their expression, structure, and function using genetic, biochemical, and immunological approaches.

*Jun O. Liu, Ph.D., Professor
Chemical biology and molecular biology; use of small molecules as probes to elucidate mechanisms of signal transduction; angiogenesis and cell proliferation.

*Caren L. Freel Meyers, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Organic and medicinal chemistry, chemical biology: drug delivery mechanisms in bacteria; development of antibiotic prodrug strategies; study of bacterial isoprenoid biosynthesis; combinatorial biosynthesis; development of potential therapeutic agents.

*Ronald L. Schnaar, Ph.D., Professor
Cell interactions in the nervous system.

*James T. Stivers, Ph.D., Professor
Structural and Chemical Biology of Uracil Metabolism and Applications to Cancer Therapy, Innate and Adaptive Immunity.

*Paul Talalay, M.D., Professor
Molecular mechanisms involved in chemoprotection against mutagens and carcinogens.

*Sean D. Taverna, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Histone and chromatin modifications, epigenetics and gene function, identification of histone binding modules, and small RNA directed gene silencing.

*Jin Zhang, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Cell signaling; kinases and phosphatases; chemotaxis; live-cell imaging; fluorescent proteins and reporters; chemical biology.

*Heng Zhu, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Signal Transduction; protein network; host-pathogen interaction; biomarker identification.