Allen B. Rawitch Professor Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Dean of Graduate Studies Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Kansas Medical Center 913-588-6957 arawitch@kumc.edu

Education and Experience

Major Research Interests

My laboratory is interested in the structure and function of thyroid proteins as they relate to the biosynthesis of thyroid hormone. In addition, we have studied structure and function in other polypeptide hormones including relaxin (an ovarian hormone important in the late stages of pregnancy), pancreatic polypeptide and related members of the NPY neuroendocrine family. My laboratory uses a variety of physical techniques, including fluorescence spectroscopy, along with he methods of modern protein chemistry in these studies. Future plans include the expression of specific domains derived from thyroid proteins in recombinant systems to allow extended studies of these proteins with and without post-translational modifications (e.g., glycosylation) and the characterization of thyroid metalloproteases.