Biochemistry

Dr. Antje Almeida

• Function and specificity of antimicrobial and cytotoxic peptides.
• Movement of charged peptides across hydrophobic barriers.
• Structure of bacterial membranes

Dr. Paulo Almeida

• Mechanism and kinetics of action of amphipathic defense peptides: how antimicrobial peptides and bacterial toxins attack their target cells.
• Understanding biological membrane function: domain formation in fluid phospholipid membranes.
• Cooperative magnification of small protein-lipid interactions and their functional consequences.

Dr. Chris Halkides

• Chemical modification of signal transduction proteins
• Crystallization of proteins
• Synthesis of inhibitors against enzymes involved in amino acid biosynthesis
• Testing of biodiesel

Dr. Conor Haney

• New methods for the site-specific incorporation of multiple post-translationally modified amino acids to understand how modifications affect protein aggregation
• Peptide-based molecular probes for disease-related aggregates with improved specificity over current, small-molecule probes
• Small molecule modulators of the cells’ inherent response to misfolded or aggregated proteins as a means to “rescue,” protein misfolding

Dr. Soon Goo Lee

• Molecular and structural basis of enzymes, regulatory proteins, and key signaling molecules using biochemical research tools, especially protein X-ray crystallography
• The 'Genomic identification - Structure-based functional study - Protein/Metabolic engineering' strategy to understand and engineer the production of natural products

Dr. Ying Wang

• Molecular basis and pharmaceutical intervention of hereditary cataract formation
• Protein engineering of highly soluble myoglobin inspired by deep-diving whales
• Thermodynamics-guided formulation development of pharmaceutical proteins and peptides