Biological Chemistry

Research in Biological and Carbohydrate Chemistry includes the study of the structures and functions of proteins and complex carbohydrates to determine their roles in growth and development, host-pathogen interactions, and disease processes. To investigate their chemistry and their physiological, developmental, and molecular biology, these research groups develop and use advanced analytical techniques, including mass spectrometry, NMR, EPR, and Raman spectroscopies, chemical and enzymatic synthesis, computer modeling, artificial neural networks, tissue culture, immunocytochemistry, and recombinant genetics.

Personnel

I. Jonathan Amster

Distinguished Research Professor

My research group specializes in the development and application of Fourier transform mass spectrometry for solving difficult problems in bioanalytical chemistry. We are exploring new methods for analyzing the structural features of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), a class of carbohydrates that play a central role in a number of important biological…

Geert-Jan Boons

Distinguished Professor in Biochemical Science

Protein- and lipid-bound saccharides play essential roles in many molecular processes impacting eukaryotic biology and disease. Progress in glycoscience is, however, hampered by the inaccessibility of well-defined oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates for biological and biomedical studies. My laboratory is addressing these issues by developing…

Prof. David Crich

Eminent Scholar

Timothy Dore

Adjunct Professor

To increase our understanding of biology and medicine, the scientific community requires the continued development of new technologies for studying and manipulating cell physiology. The research interests of the Dore Laboratory at NYUAD lie at the interface of chemistry and biology, creating new technology to study complex biological…

Todd Harrop

Professor

The research in the Harrop group focuses on aspects in the area of bioinorganic chemistry. These interests include the rational design and synthesis of structural and functional models of metalloenzyme active sites involved in small molecule activation, especially the superoxide detoxifying enzymes like superoxide reductase (SOR, a non-heme…

Kelly M. Hines

Assistant Professor

Our goal is to better understand the ways in which lipids and small molecules contribute to diseases affecting human health and use this knowledge to develop diagnostic and prognostic tools based on molecular signatures of the disease. To achieve this, the Hines Lab develops and applies bioanalytical methods using ion mobility-mass spectrometry…

Robert Huigens III, Ph.D.

Associate Professor

Michael Johnson

Emeritus Professor

Our research concerns the role and assembly of transition metal centers in metalloenzymes and metalloproteins. Metal centers constitute the active sites of at least one third of all enzymes and determining the assembly mechanism of metallocenters and the electronic and structural properties of metal centers that confer selective and specific…

William Lanzilotta

Professor

Introduction- In general, a very broad description of the work of interest to this laboratory are the mechanisms of metalloproteins involved in radical generation, oxidative stress protection, as well as heme synthesis, sensing, aquisition and transport.

With very few exceptions, heme is required by most organisms for a vast array of…

Ron Orlando

Professor

Our research focuses on the use of mass spectrometry to answer biological/biomedical questions. The majority of our projects involve characterizing the post-translational modifications (e.g., glycosylation, phosphorylation) present on the protein of interest. For example, we are currently investigating the in vivo changes that occur in human…

Robert Phillips

Professor

Enzymes are remarkable biocatalysts, not only for the dramatic rate accelerations (up to 1020 fold) that they provide, but also for the high degree of substrate specificity, regiospecificity and stereospecificity that these reactions exhibit. The work in my laboratory is focused on the chemical basis for how enzymes achieve such high rates and…

Vladimir Popik

Professor

Photoswitchable bioactive compounds: Photoactivation of drugs, enzymes, and other bio-molecules allows for achieving of the spatial and temporal control of their action. We design and synthesize compounds that are inactive in the dark but are converted into bioactive form upon irradiation with light of an appropriate wavelength. One of our…

Robert Scott

Emeritus Professor

Jeffrey Urbauer

Associate Professor

Protein structure and function NMR spectroscopy of proteins and protein complexes Biophysical characterization of proteins Structural biology

The molecular details that define the structure, stability and function of interesting proteins and protein complexes, and those that dictate how proteins fold and interact with one another, are the…

Yifan Wang

Assistant Professor

Our lab utilizes an integrated approach that combines structural biology, spectroscopy, transient kinetics, 
and biochemical techniques to investigate the catalytic mechanisms and structure-function relationships of metalloenzymes, with a particular focus on those involved in natural product biosynthesis and primary metabolism.
…

Portrait of Dr. Eric Betzig, guest speaker

New Windows Into The Secret Lives of Cells

Dr. Eric Betzig, Professor and 2014 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry (UC Berkeley, Janelia Research Campus, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute)

iSTEM Building 2, Room 1218

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Portrait of Professor David Crich, 2024 NAI Senior Member
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Professor David Crich, Eminent Scholar and Professor of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, is among five University of Georgia researchers selected by the …

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Contact Us!

Assistant to the Department Head: Donna Spotts, 706-542-1919 

Main office phone: 706-542-1919 

Main Email: chem-web@franklin.uga.edu

Interim Head of Chemistry: Prof. Gary Douberly