Faculty Research

The Research Faculty serve as leading educators and scholars producing advancing research across their fields, contributing to scientific publications and receiving both private and national research funding. The research team consists of those that facilitate Research and Teaching as well as Research Assistant Professors.

Research & Teaching

NameField of InterestResearch
Emrah AltindisUnderstanding microbial mimicry in host-pathogen interactions, characterization of viral insulins in Iridoviridae, identification of novel viral hormones, exploring the role of the microbiome in Type 1 Diabetes autoimmunityMicrobiology & Endocrinology
Anthony T. AnnunziatoMolecular biology; Chromatin assembly and histone modifications in mammalian cells and fission yeastCell & Developmental Biology
David BurgessCytokinesis, polarization of the cytoskeletonCell & Developmental Biology
Thomas C. ChilesB lymphocyte growth and survival, metabolomics, nanodiagnosticsMicrobiology & Infectious Disease
Peter CloteRNA thermodynamics-based algorithms, protein and RNA structure, function and molecular evolution machine learning in bioinformaticsComputational Biology & Bioinformatics
Jeffrey DaCosta
Ecology, behavior and evolution.Ecology & Evolution
Maitreyi DasCell signaling and polarization in cell shape establishment and cytokinesisCell and Developmental Biology
Ismael Ben FofanaHIV/AIDS vaccine, SIV/macaque model of AIDS, Phage Display and Antibody Engineering, Virus evolution and escape of antibody responses 
Eric S. Folker  Cellular Organization. Mechanisms of nuclear movement and the role of nuclear movement in muscle development and disease pathogenesis.Cell & Developmental Biology
Marc-Jan GubbelsThe genetic and cell biological basis of Toxoplasma gondii cell division and host cell invasionMicrobiology & Infectious Disease
Charles HoffmanGlucose sensing, signal transduction, and transcriptional regulation in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombeMicrobiology & Infectious Disease
Welkin Johnson  Retroviruses; Primate lentiviruses (HIV and SIV); Co-evolution of viruses and their hostsMicrobiology & Infectious Disease
Christopher KenaleyVertebrate biomechanics, physiology, and systematicsEcology, Evolution & Organismal Biology
Phil LandriganGlobal Public Health; Children's Environmental Health; Occupational HealthGlobal Public Health
Vicki LosickRole and regulation of polyploidy in wound repair, aging, and disease in DrosophilaCell & Developmental Biology
Sarah McMenamin
Developmental biology, evolutionary development, post-embryonic coordination, thyroid hormone, craniofacial development, zebrafishCell & Developmental Biology
Michelle MeyerComputational biology, non-coding RNA discovery and validation, molecular evolution, RNA and protein structureComputational Biology & Bioinformatics
Babak MomeniSystems biology of microbial communities; mathematical modeling of biological systems; microbial ecologyComputational Biology & Bioinformatics
Thomas N. SeyfriedGene-environmental interactions in epilepsy and brain cancerCell & Developmental Biology
Kenneth C. WilliamsCentral nervous system macrophages, neuroAIDS, AIDS pathogenesis, monocyte/macrophage biologyMicrobiology & Infectious Disease

Visiting Scholars

NameField of InterestLab
Kurt StraifGlobal Observatory on Pollution and Health. Society Cancer Epidemiology/Global Control of CancerSchiller Institute for Integrated Science
Gherman WiederschanGlycobiology and Human DiseasesSeyfried Lab

Research Professors

NameField of InterestResearch
Klemens EngelbergCell division in apicomplexan parasitesGubbels Lab
Purna MukherjeeMolecular mechanisms of diet on brain tumorsSeyfried Lab
James WhitneyMolecular virology, reservoir dynamics, and pre-clinical development. He has established primate models to examine both sexual transmission and SIV persistence on intensified antiretroviral therapy.  Whitney Lab

Selected Publications

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Unique Structure and Distinctive Properties of the Ancient and Ubiquitous Gamma-Type Envelope Glycoprotein
Viruses, January 2023
Victoria Hogan, Welkin E. Johnson

Dynamics of the gut microbiome, IgA response, and plasma metabolome in the development of pediatric celiac disease
Microbiome, January 2023
Khyati Girdhar, Yusuf Dogus Dogru, Qian Huang, Yi Yang, Vladimir Tolstikov, Amol Raisingani, Martina Chrudinova, Jaewon Oh, Kristina Kelley, Jonas F Ludvigsson, Michael A Kiebish, Noah W Palm, Johnny Ludvigsson, Emrah Altindis
Microbiome