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Department Research Interests

Learn about the diverse research focus areas of the faculty in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Illustration of the five senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing, smell) and an axis between them

Joseph D. Fontes, Ph.D., Professor

Regulation of gene transcription. Gap junctional coupling in neuronal survival and death.

Bret Freudenthal, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Genome maintenance. Elucidating how DNA damage is generated, processed and repaired using structural and biochemical approaches.

Christy Hagan, Ph.D., Associate Professor

Role of hormones in breast cancer, crosstalk between inflammation and steroid receptor action.

Alexey Ladokhin, Ph.D., Professor

Illustration of process from genomic DNA to mRNA, single subunits, assembly chaperones and potential degradation leading to amino acids and then the cycle begins again.Membrane proteins in apoptotic regulation and cancer targeting, Bcl-2 proteins, bacterial toxins, antimicrobial peptides, biophysical techniques.

Learn more about the Ladokhin Lab

Kenneth Peterson, Ph.D., Professor

Human β-globin gene regulation using transgenic mice and cell lines generated with β- globin locus yeast artificial chromosomes.

Jeroen Roelofs, Ph.D.,  Associate Professor

Protein degradation in the cell. Biochemical and cell biological analyses of assembly and localization of proteasomes and their autophagic degradation.

Learn more about the Roelofs Lab

Chad Slawson, Ph.D., Associate Professor

The role of post-translational modification in cell cycle progression and development; glycobiology; signal transduction.

Multicolored illustration of lines tangled togetherLiskin Swint-Kruse, Ph.D., Professor and Chair

Applications of protein evolution to personalized medicine and protein engineering; transcriptional regulation of bacterial metabolism. 

Learn more about the Liskin Swint-Kruse Lab

Lejla Zubcevic, Ph.D., Assistant Professor

Structural basis of sensory perception. Applying X-ray crystallography and cryo-EM to investigate how ion channels are activated by sensory inputs.

KU School of Medicine

University of Kansas Medical Center
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
1080 HLSIC ,  Mailstop 3030
Kansas City, KS 66160-7421