Current Students
| Name | Thesis Advisor | Research Interest |
|---|
| Alexandra Born | Beat Vogeli, PhD | Allosteric and dynamic relationships driving the mitotic regulator Pin 1 |
| Alexis Catala | Angelo D’Alessandro, PhD | Biotechnological reprogramming of viruses into therapeutic agents & investigations into dynamic multiparametric metabolic responses of living systems remodeled by pathophysiologic stimuli and/or genetic modifications. |
| Mark Connolly | Rotating | My primary research interest is the structural characteristics of chromatin that regulate cellular process such as gene transcription, cellular differentiation and replication. |
Megan Cullinan
| John Bankston, PhD
| Structural dynamics of acid-sensing ion channels using biophysical and biochemical approaches
|
| Rachel Culp-Hill | Angelo D’Alessandro, PhD | Conventional chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia eliminates most proliferating bulk tumor cells, but some of the leukemia stem cell population remains. These remaining cells can lead to disease progression and relapse; targeting them would result in better outcomes or even curative therapy for AML patients. Currently, I am working to characterize the aberrant fatty acid metabolism in leukemic stem cells using metabolomics and mass spectrometry, but my research also focuses on characterizing metabolic perturbations in leukemia, how altered pathways contribute to their phenotype, and how they can be targeted for therapeutic use. |
| Sara Espinosa | Rui Zhao, PhD | My research interest is understanding the molecular mechanism of pre-mRNA splicing and gene expression using biochemical, genetic, and structural approaches |
| Harrison Fuchs | Catherine Musselman, PhD | I am interested in the mechanisms of chromatin signaling in the context of the nucleosome. Specifically, I'm currently working to learn about the conformational dynamics of the histone tails in the context of the nucleosome and how post-translational modifications alter these dynamics. Further, I am interested in understanding the implications of the histone tail dynamics on the read-out of chromatin signaling by histone reader domains. |
| Alya Hussain | Beat Vogeli, PhD | My interests include functional receptor expression, cryo- EM, and neuroscience. |
| Aaron Issaian | Kirk Hansen, PhD | Investigating the function of Olduvai protein domains |
| Jeffrey Krall | Rotating | I am interested in protein structure and function, specifically, I want to understand how the structure of a protein affects its function. |
| Ian LaCroix | Rotating | My research interest is currently driven by computation, while I work from home due to the COVID19 pandemic. I am very interested in research involving athletic performance optimization, metabolism dynamics, hypoxia. The list of my research interests goes on and on, but is centralized by mass spectrometry. Overall, I am interested in the fundamentals and theory of how a mass spectrometer operates, how to make hardware/method improvements, application of mass spectrometry to answer important biological questions. Furthermore, intelligent data acquisition seems like the future for TMT quantification, and I am interested in the opportunity to facilitate its development. |
| Conner Langeberg | Jeffrey Kieft, PhD | RNAs form diverse and complex tertiary structures which relate to their function in cells where many RNA interacting proteins recognizing these folds. My interests relate to these protein-RNA interactions in the context of highly structured
non-coding RNAs. |
| Eli Martz | Aaron Johnson, PhD | I am primarily interested in studying chromatin structure. |
Maxwell McCabe
| Kirk Hansen, PhD | I am interested in using proteomics to characterize the composition and architecture of the extracellular matrix (ECM) across different organs with a focus on would healing. I am currently working to compose an organ-specific ECM Atlas, characterize the mechanisms of scarless wound-healing in Acomys cahirinus, and determine pro-regenerative components of decellularized ECM scaffolds. In the future, I hope to use this information to improve the rational design of ECM scaffolds for use in regenerative medicine. |
| Kilsia Mercedes | Rotating | My research interests include protein structure and dynamics, specifically those involved in inflammatory processes. |
| Parker Nichols | Beat Vogeli, PhD, Co-M Jeffrey Kieft, PhD | I am interested in understanding how RNA molecules fold and function at a structural level |
| Ruben Rosas Ospina | Mair Churchill, PhD | Molecular recognition of DNA by chromatin assembly factor 1 |
| Lauren Schmitt | Kirk Hansen, PhD | Lauren's work in the Hansen Lab focuses on characterizing the structure of blood clots through identification of FXIIIa cross-links. Our method utilizing cross-linking mass spectrometry (CL-MS), will allow for the rapid identification of these
cross-links and improve our understanding of the structure of a blood clot. |
| Cassandra Smith | David Jones, PhD | Structural analysis of the regulation of mitochondrial trafficking in metastasis |
| Abby Trouth | Rotating | My research interests are in epigenetics and chromatin regulation, along with RNA biology and structure. |
| Anna VanKeuren | Rotating | I have John Bankston and his lab to thank for my interest in the field of ion channels and their structure. |
| Natalie Young | Francisco Asturias, PhD | Molecular electron microscopy analysis of mouse mediator |
Alumni
| Name | Thesis Advisor | Research Interest | Graduated |
|---|
| Joshua Abbott | Daniel LaBarbara, PhD | Structure based drug design targeting transcription factors that regulate epithelial to mesenchymal transition. | 2020 |
Schuyler Lee
| Gongyi Zhang, PhD
| Role of JMJD5 and JMJD6 in regulating transcriptional pausing
| 2019 |
Stephen Pollard
| David Pollock, PhD
| Biophysics, protein evolution mechanisms and modeling.
| 2019 |
Vishantie Dostal
| Mair Churchill, PhD | Mitochondrial transcription.
| 2018 |
Erik Hartwick
| Jeffrey Kieft, PhD
| Understanding the structural basis of RNA manipulation of ribosomes by IRES RNAs
| 2018 |
Alexander Barrett
| Kirk Hansen, PhD
| My research interests involve studying tissue remodeling associated with metastatic and non-metastatic tumors and how these changes are reflected in the composition of the extracellular matrix.
| 2017 |
Travis Nemkov
| Kirk Hansen, PhD
| Suffocating the oxygen carriers: Implications for physiology and transfusion medicine
| 2017 |
Ryan Hill
| Kirk Hansen, PhD
| Advances in Extracellular Matrix Proteomics: Applications towards Regenerative Medicine and Disease
| 2016 |
Michael Holliday
| Elan Eisenmesser, PhD
| Determination of the Full Catalytic Cycle among Multiple Cyclophilin Family Members and Limitations on the Application of CPMG-RD in Reversible Catalytic Systems
| 2016 |
Agnieszka (Aga) Kendrick
| Elan Eisenmesser, PhD
| CD147 reprograms pancreatic cancer metabolism via its interaction with small molecule transporters
| 2016 |
Ryan Walsh
| Mark Duncan, PhD
| Quantitative Analysis of Human Tear Fluid
| 2016 |
Melanie Blevins
| Rui Zhao, PhD
| Recipient of the University of Colorado Cancer Center Paul Sandoval Pancreatic Cancer Research Scholarship, "Targeting the Six1-Eya Interaction for Pancreatic Cancer Therapeutics" Targeting protein-protein interactions for potential anti-cancer
therapeutics.
| 2015 |
Candice Wike
| Jessica Tyler, PhD
| Functional Analysis of Phosphorylation of Histone H3 on Threonine 118
| 2014 |
Ying-Chih Chi
| Changwei Liu, PhD
| Understanding of the Structural and Functional Effect of H50Q alpha-synuclein
| 2014 |
Jacek Klepacki
| Uwe Christians, PhD
| Kidney Disfunction Biomarkers for the early Detection of Allograft Injury
| 2014 |
Sten Wie
| Mary Reyland, PhD
| Identifying Non-Receptor Tyrosine Kinases which regulate the pro-apoptotic function of PKC delta
| 2014 |
Aaron Krueger
| Rui Zhao, PhD
| Identification and characterization of specific inhbitors of Eya2 phosphatase
| 2013 |
J. Paul Kirwan
| Robert Hodges, PhD
| A Stability Control Region in Tropomyosin Transmits Long-Range Effects to Provide Optimum Stability
| 2012 |
Jennifer Schlegel
| Douglas Graham, PhD
| Cellular Receptors in Cancer: CD147 and Mer
| 2012 |
Are you a Structural Biology and Biochemistry alumnus? We'd love to stay in touch!
