University of Georgia

Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology

Learn more about this group by contacting Dr. Y. George Zheng (yzheng@uga.edu) or visiting the Chemical Biology website.

Chemical Biology is an interdisciplinary field of study that bridges the traditional fields of chemistry and biology, applying chemical methods to problems in biology. Often, the tools used are compounds produced through synthetic chemistry that are designed with guidance from structural biology to manipulate physiological processes, providing insight as to how these processes work and sometimes leading to the creation of new function.

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adams

Michael Adams

Distinguished Research Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Functional and structural genomics, metabolism and enzymology of organisms
that grow near 100C.

Website

Adam Barb (Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University)

Adam W. Barb

Associate Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Our goal is to define the impact of protein post-translational modifications on structure and function in the immune system.

Website

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David Blum

Director,
Bioexpression & Fermentation Facility
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Protein expression, development of commercially relevant monoclonal antibodies.

Website

C. Robin Buell, 2014 Beal Outstanding Faculty award recipient

C. Robin Buell

Professor
GRA Eminent Scholar Chair in Crop Genomics
Plant Biology, Bioinformatics

Plant genome biology with a focus on crops and medicinal plants; Synthetic biology; Evolution of natural product biosynthesis

Website

cai_houjian

Houjian Cai

Associate Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences

Post-translational modification including protein acylation, fatty acid metabolism,
prostate stem cell, Src family kinases, prostate cancer, small molecular inhibitor.

Website

Crich_ILS_recruiting photo_2019

David Crich

Professor; Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Drug Design
Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences; Chemistry

Organic and medicinal chemistry; carbohydrate chemistry; glycomimetics; drug design and development with emphasis on multi-drug resistant infectious diseases

Website

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Docampo, Roberto

Roberto Docampo

Professor
Cellular Biology

Cellular and molecular biology of acidocalcisomes; the role of polyphosphate in trypanosomatids.

Website

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Diana Downs

Distinguished Research Professor
Microbiology

Bacterial physiology and metabolic integration using biochemical, genetic and metabolomics approaches.

Website

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art_edison

Arthur Edison

Professor
GRA Eminent Scholar
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Genetics

Metabolomics and systems biology of Caenorhabditis elegans using NMR,
mass spec, and computational approaches.

Website

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escalante

Jorge Escalante-Semerena

UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor
Microbiology

Prokaryotic metabolism and physiology with emphasis on protein acetylation, toxic metabolites,
and complex metabolic pathway analysis, integration.

Website

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Phillip Greenspan

Associate Professor
Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences

Inhibition of glycation and LDL oxidation by natural products and nutraceuticals.

Website

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Hitesh Handa

Associate Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences

Translational research in biomaterials (antifouling, antiplatelet, antibacterial, and antiviral) for tissue engineering and medical device applications

Website

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Kelly M. Hines

Assistant Professor
Chemistry

Lipidomic and metabolomic analyses of antimicrobial resistant pathogens using ion mobility and mass spectrometry

Website

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Shelley Hooks

Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences; Neuroscience

G-protein coupled receptors, molecular pharmacology, signal transduction, ovarian cancer, neural stem cells.

Website

Huet_Diego

Diego Huet

Assistant Professor
Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences

The Huet Lab will use metabolomics and CRISPR-based approaches to understand the mitochondrial and organellar biology of a class of protozoan parasites, the apicomplexans.

Website

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Natarajan-Kannan-300x300

Natarajan Kannan

Associate Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Bioinformatics

Evolutionary systems biology; protein kinase signaling in plants, pathogens and microbes. Evolution and classification of glycoenzymes.

Website

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Kennedy.Eileen1

Eileen Kennedy

Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences

Chemical biology, kinase signaling, cancer, signal transduction, drug discovery.

Website

Kipreos

Edward Kipreos

Professor
Cellular Biology

Regulation of the cell cycle; ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis and development.

Website

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Dennis Kyle

Professor
GRA Eminent Scholar Chair in Antiparasitic Drug Discovery
Cellular Biology & Infectious Diseases

The discovery and development of new drugs to prevent or treat malaria and diseases
caused by brain-eating amoebae. Elucidating mechanism(s) of resistance
and discovering new drug treatment regimens, combinations, or strategies to overcome resistance.

Website

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12LanzilottaBill_0_0

William Lanzilotta

Associate Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

The mechanisms of metalloproteins involved in radical generation, oxidative stress protection,
as well as heme synthesis, sensing, aquisition and transport.

Website

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Amy Medlock

Associate Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Understanding intracellular and intercellular heme transport.

Website

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Cory Momany

Associate Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences

X-ray crystallography of macromolecules, prokaryotic transcriptional regulators.

Website

164MoremenKelley

Kelley Moremen

Distinguished Research Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Biochemistry, molecular, and structural biology of mammalian glycoprotein biosynthesis and catabolism.

Website

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Moreno

Silvia Moreno

Professor
Cellular Biology

Metabolism and drug development against protozoan parasites.
Calcium signaling and storage in Toxoplasma gondii.

Website

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OrlandoRon

Ron Orlando

Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Solving biological/biomedical problems with mass spectrometry.

Website

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Robert Phillips

Professor
Chemistry;
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Enzymes involved in amino acid, especially tryptophan, metabolism which may be drug
targets for cancer, hypertension and neurodegenerative diseases.

Website

Vladimir_Popik

Vladimir Popik

Professor of Chemistry
Chemistry

Development of biorothogonal protein modification techniques, novel caging groups, and photoactivatable antitumor antibiotics.

Website

161PrestegardJames

James Prestegard

Professor Emeritus, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Application of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to the characterization of biologically important systems.

Website

roberts_audie

Arthur Roberts

Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences; Toxicology

Development of high-throughput structural biology tools, biophysical methods,
NMR, and computer-aided drug-design to investigate drug-protein
interactions and human disease.

Website

Rose_John2017

John Rose

Associate Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

X-ray structural biology, the mitochondrial inner membrane space transport system,
structure based vaccine and therapeutic design, improved/automated methods for
synchrotron SAD data collection and structure determination.

Website

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Walter K. Schmidt Jr.

Professor
Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Neuroscience

Molecular cell biology and biochemistry of proteases associated with isoprenylated protein
maturation and amyloidogenic peptide degradation; cancer; Alzheimer’s disease.

Website

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eva_strauch

Eva-Maria Strauch

Assistant Professor
Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences

Protein design and engineering, design of anti-virals and immunogens,
protein chemistry and re-purposing of viral surface proteins,
computational biology

Website

Anne_Summers

Anne Summers

Professor
Microbiology; Toxicology

Environmental stress biology, using biochemical, biophysical, and ‘omics approaches to define
the roles of toxic metal exposure in chronic and infectious diseases.

Website

Professor Stephen Trent

M. Stephen Trent

UGA Foundation Distinguished Professor
Infectious Diseases

Characterizing the assembly of bacterial surface structures, Development of vaccines for viral
and bacterial pathogens, Systems approaches to understanding microbial diseases

Website

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C.J. Tsai

Professor, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
Bioinformatics; Genetics; Plant Biology

Growth-defense tradeoff, phenylpropanoid metabolism and carbon allocation,
gene family evolution and functional diversification, alternative splicing and gene duplication.

Website

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Jeffrey Urbauer

Associate Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Chemistry

Structural biology of transcription regulation, steroid hormone activation and breast cancer.

Website

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Bi-Cheng Wang

Professor, Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Structure-function studies by X-ray diffraction, transcription proteins,
structural genomics, phasing methods.

Website

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Wendy Watford

Associate Professor
Infectious Diseases

Regulation of host defense and tolerance by Stat transcription factors.

Website

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Ryan Weiss

Assistant Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center

Investigating the regulatory mechanisms of glycosylation using genomic, chemical, and genetic approaches with particular focus on the discovery of novel drugs and targets to treat human diseases.

Website

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Lance Wells

Professor, Georgia Research Alliance Distinguished Investigator
ILS Director
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center

Role of protein glycosylation in intellectual disability, congenital muscular dystrophy, cancer, and viral infection.

Website

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Christopher M. West

Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Oxygen- and glycosylation-dependent regulation of polyubiquitin ligases in Dictyostelium and Toxoplasma gondii;
Glycobiology of protozoa.

Website

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Zachary Wood

Associate Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

X-ray crystallographic and biochemical studies of nucleotide sugar metabolism.

Website

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Robert Woods

Professor
Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Immunological carbohydrate-protein interactions studied by computational simulation and experimental methods.

Website

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Xie Jin

Jin Xie

Associate Professor
Chemistry

Nanoparticle-based imaging and drug delivery; radiation therapy and photodynamic therapy

Website

Zastre.Jason_1

Jason Zastre

Associate Professor
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences; Toxicology

Transport, micronutrient, hypoxia, cancer.

Website

zheng_george

Y. George Zheng

Professor
Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar
Pharmaceutical & Biomedical Sciences

Drug Development, Chemical Biology, Cancer Disease Mechanism, Epigenetics and Genetics, Histone Modifications, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Enzymology, and Biophysics.

Website