Cell & Molecular Biology

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Cells are the fundamental unit of life. Thus the cellular structure, organization, and function, and cellular communication is at the very heart of all biological processes. Most diseases result from the failure or malfunction of normal cellular processes. Research in this area explores a wide variety of basic aspects of cell function and communication, leading to a better understanding of many diseases. Research interests include cellular neurobiology, cell transport, cell physiology and toxicology, virology, immunology, molecular neurobiology, gene expression and regulation, and cellular signal transduction.

Cellular & Molecular Basis of Disease Training Program

Faculty List

Katherine Amato

Katherine Amato, PhD 
Email: katherine.amato@northwestern.edu 
Research Interests: Biological Anthropology

Xiaomin Bao headshot

Xiaomin Bao, PhD
Email: xiaomin.bao@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Epigenomic regulation of stem cell maintenance and differentiation

Greg Beitel headshot

Greg Beitel, PhD
Email: beitel@northwestern.edu 
Research Interests: Molecular genetics of organ morphogenesis

Shelby Blythe

Shelby Blythe, PhD 
Email: shelby.blythe@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Developmental control of chromatin structure & embryo pattern formation

Jason Brickner headshot

Jason Brickner, PhD 
Email: j-brickner@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Cell biology of transcription

Jenna Christensen

Jenna Christensen, PhD 
Email: jenna.christensen@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Intracellular transport diversity and regulation

Marc Gallio headshot

Marco Gallio, PhD
Email: marco@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Processing of temperature stimuli in the brain

Erica Hartmann

Erica Hartmann, PhD
Email: erica.hartmann@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Effect of anthropogenic chemicals on microbes in the environment

Curt Horvath headshot

Curt Horvath, PhD
Email: horvath@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Signal transduction and gene regulation in innate immune responses to cancer and viruses

Neil Kelleher headshot

Neil Kelleher, PhD
Email: n-kelleher@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Top-down proteomics, natural products discovery, chromatic oncobiology, and computational proteomics

Sinan Keten

Sinan Keten, PhD
Email: s-keten@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Molecular modeling, adhesive and structural proteins, bioinspired materials

William Klein headshot

William L. Klein, PhD
Email: wklein@northwestern.edu 
Research Interests: Molecular basis of Alzheimer's disease

Carole LaBonne

Carole LaBonne, PhD 
Email: clabonne@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Stem cells, gene regulatory networks and the evolution of vertebrates

Laura Lackner headshot

Laura L. Lackner, PhD
Email: laura.lackner@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Spatial organization within cells, using mitochondrial structure and distribution as a model

Keara Lane

Keara M. Lane, PhD
Email: kearamlane@gmail.com
Research Interests: Dynamic single-cell profiling of host-pathogen interactions

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Hojoon Lee, PhD
Email: hojoon.lee@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Neurobiology of taste

Joshua Leonard

Joshua Leonard, PhD
Email: j-leonard@northwestern.edu 
Research Interests: Engineering cellular systems and biomolecules for immunotherapy, synthetic biology, and biotechnology

John Marko headshot

John F. Marko, PhD
Email: john-marko@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Protein-DNA interactions, and chromosome structure and dynamics

Kelly Mayo

Kelly E. Mayo, PhD
Email: k-mayo@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Gene regulation in the mammalian neuroendocrine system

David McLean

David McLean, PhD
Email: david-mclean@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Development and plasticity of motor networks

Chad Mirkin

Chad Mirkin, PhD
Email:
 chadnano@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Developing methods for controlling the architecture of molecules and materials on the 1 - 100 nm length scale

Richard Morimoto headshot

Richard I. Morimoto, PhD
Email: r-morimoto@northwestern.edu 
Research Interests: Cell stress responses, molecular chaperones, and protein conformational disease

Christian Petersen

Christian P. Petersen, PhD
Email: christian-p-petersen@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Molecular and cellular basis of regeneration

Tiffany Schmidt headshot

Tiffany Schmidt, PhD
Email: tiffany.schmidt@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Understanding visual circuits using electrophysiology, behavior, and anatomy in mouse models

Reza Vafabakhsh

Reza Vafabakhsh, PhD
Email: reza.vafabakhsh@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Development of methods for quantitative hierarchical characterization of synaptic players at different length scales

Eric Weiss

Eric Weiss, PhD
Email: elweiss@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Signaling pathways in the control of cell architecture

Sadie Wignall headshot

Sadie M. Wignall, PhD
Email: s-wignall@northwestern.edu 
Research Interests: Spindle assembly and chromosome segregation during cell division

yue yang

Yue Yang, PhD
Email: yue.yang@northwestern.edu
Research Interests: Epigenetic programming of neural circuits