Dr. Busciglio received his undergraduate degree from the
University of Cordoba, and his Ph.D. from the Institute M.
& M. Ferreyra for Medical Research in Argentina, where
he studied the molecular mechanisms by which neuronal processes
(e.g. axons and dendrites) differentiate during brain development.
He conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School
and The Children¹s Hospital in Boston, where he started
his investigations on the neurobiology of Down¹s syndrome
and Alzheimer¹s disease. As an Assistant Professor at
University of Connecticut Health Center, Dr. Busciglio studied
the role of several genes involved in Down¹s and Alzheimer¹s
neuropathology.
Dr. Busciglio¹s research at UCI will focus on the role
of mitochondrial dysfunction in Down¹s syndrome neuropathology,
and the alterations in neuronal plasticity that occur in the
Alzheimer¹s brain.
David
Camerini
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Dr. Camerini received his bachelor's degree in Biochemistry
from UC Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University.
Before coming to UCI, he was a faculty member in the Myles
H. Thaler Center for AIDS and Human Retrovirus Research and
the Department of Microbiology at the University of Virginia
School of Medicine.
Dr. Camerini's research is focused on elucidating mechanisms
of HIV pathogenesis and designing new methods of inhibiting
the development of AIDS, using mouse, organ culture and tissue
culture models. His research will lead the way towards new
techniques and therapies for inhibiting the progression of
AIDS. He is an important new member of the Center for Virus
Research and the Center for Immunology.
Paolo
Casali
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Department of Medicine, COM
Dr. Casali received his medical degree from the University
of Milan. He then came to the United States and became a research
associate in the Department of Immunology at the Scripps Research
Institute. At the New York University School of Medicine,
he was named the Kaplan Cancer Scholar and later joined the
faculty at Cornell University Weill Medical College as a Professor
of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and Professor of Microbiology
and Immunology. One of the nation’s leading immunologists,
Dr. Casali joins the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry,
as well as the Department of Medicine, in the College of Medicine,
as the Donald Bren Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
and Medicine.
Dr. Casali’s research focuses on a population of immune-system
cells, B cells, which make specific antibodies that identify
foreign objects in the body, including disease-causing organisms
such as viruses and bacteria. The antibodies tag these foreign
invaders and allow them to be targeted for destruction by
other white blood cells. He has studied the unique ability
of B cells to splice different parts of their genome together
to generate the instructions for each specific antibody, some
of which are misdirected against the body itself, leading
to autoimmune disease. Currently, Dr. Casali is studying the
mechanisms behind the two important B cellular activities
called somatic hypermutation and class switching.
Dr. Chance received her B.S. from the California Institute
of Technology and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Brandeis
University, and carried out postdoctoral training at New York
University.
Frances Chance brings a unique ability to blend theoretical
and experimental approaches to study neuronal networks and
circuitry in the brain. She brings an original approach to
studying the complexities of neuronal circuitry, and joins
a strong program in integrated neurosciences.
Melanie
Cocco
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Dr. Cocco received a bachelor of science degree from Virginia
Tech and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Penn State. She has held
postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Connecticut
and Yale University.
Dr. Cocco brings important expertise to UCI on the structure
of proteins and nucleic acids analyzed using NMR spectroscopy.
In her work so far she has studied the proteins myoglobin,
thioredoxin, phospholamban, and the B1 domain of protein G,
as well as quadruplex DNA. Her current research is focused
in two important areas: DNA binding proteins and membrane
proteins. Both topics are actively studied in the school from
a biological perspective, and Dr. Cocco's studies will add
an important new dimension to these critical areas. She is
also an excellent bridge between the schools of biological
and physical sciences. We were able to recruit Dr. Cocco because
of the excellent NMR facilities on campus and especially the
new 18.8 Tesla (800 megahertz) NMR installed in Natural Sciences
1.
Dr. Cohen-Cory received her undergraduate and M.Sc. degrees
from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and Ph.D. in
Neuroscience from Rockefeller University, where she studied
the regulation of cerebellar neuron development. As a postdoctoral
fellow at the California Institute of Technology, Dr. Cohen-Cory
researched the trophic influences in the in vivo development
of the visual system of Xenopus laevis.
Dr. Cohen-Cory is an acclaimed developmental neurobiologist
particularly interested in the central problem of how neurons
in the CNS develop, differentiate, and establish functional
connections with their target cells. Using frogs as a model,
she focuses on how multiple signals, including neuronal
growth gactors and neural activity influence the morphological
development of neurons and the formation synapses in the
developing brain.
Dr. Cramer received her undergraduate degree from the University
of California, Berkeley and her Ph.D. from the California
Institute of Technology where she studied the development
of the neuromuscular junction in mammals. She conducted postdoctoral
research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
the University of Washington.
Dr. Cramer’s research addresses the embryonic origin
and development of the auditory brainstem nuclei and their
synaptic connections. She investigates the molecular mechanisms
underlying the formation of precise connections in the auditory
system. Another study focuses on the potential relationship
between development and plasticity when connections in the
auditory brainstem are altered following deafferentation,
which may provide insight into brain reorganization and contribute
to the understanding of how the brain repairs itself.
Lan
Huang
Department of Dev. & Cell Biology
Department of Physiology & Biophysics
Dr. Huang received her undergraduate degree in chemistry
from Nanjing University in China, and obtained her Ph.D. in
analytical chemistry at University of Florida where she developed
novel analytical methods to monitor insulin secretion from
single pancreatic beta cells, aiming at understanding insulin
secretion mechanisms related to diabetes. She conducted her
postdoctoral research at University of California, San Francisco
to study protein structure-function relationship using mass
spectrometry.
As the sequence analysis of the Human Genome is completed,
the focus in biomedical research has moved quickly from genes
and genomes to proteins and proteomes and to the analyses
of protein functions. The dynamics of a physiological process,
such as how gene product expression is controlled, when genes
are turned on and off, and how protein function is regulated
by posttranslational modifications and or interactions with
other gene products, largely remain to be elucidated. Dr Huang's
research focuses on developing mass spectrometry-based proteomic
methodologies for study of ubiquitin-proteasome protein degradation
pathways and signal transduction networks of receptor tyrosine
kinases (e.g. FGF receptor) relevant to endocrine or metabolic
diseases and cancers. The research goal is to identify and
characterize new signaling molecules and pathways involved
under different biological conditions and to understand the
regulation mechanisms underlying the specificity of response
integration of signaling systems. Her lab is also interested
in identifying new biomarkers in these pathways for cancer
and disease detection and treatment.
Ingrid
Ruf
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry
Dr. Ruf received her undergraduate degree from The Ohio
State University and obtained her Ph.D. at Emory University.
She pursued postdoctoral research at St. Jude Children’s
Research Hospital in the Department of Virology and Molecular
Biology and the Department of Biochemistry.
Dr. Ruf’s research interests are focused on persistent
viral infections, viral gene expression and tumorigenicity.
Specifically, she is utilizing Burkitt Lymphoma as a model
system for understanding the contribution of Epstein-Barr
Virus to a number of human malignancies. She has previously
demonstrated that two viral gene products directly contribute
to the ability of the virus to cause tumors. Currently she
is pursuing the function of these gene products in viral latency
and tumorigencity as well as the mechanisms of action of these
gene products.
Michael
Rugg
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior
Until his move to UC Irvine in July 2003, Dr. Rugg was based
in the United Kingdom. Dr. Rugg received his undergraduate
degree at the University of Leicester in Psychology. He obtained
his PhD in 1979. Following a postdoctoral year at the University
of York, he was appointed to a lectureship in psychology at
the University of St. Andrews, where he went on to become
Professor of Psychology and Head of School. In 1998 he moved
to the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College
London as Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Welcome
Trust Principal Research Fellow. He was elected a Fellow of
the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1995.
Throughout his career, Dr. Rugg's research has focused on
non-invasive measures of brain activity to investigate human
cognitive function. Initially employing EEG-based methods,
his work expanded to include the functional neuro imaging
techniques of positron emission tomography and functional
magnetic resonance imaging. His principal research interests
are in the cognitive and neurological bases of human memory,
and how these change with advancing age and neurodegenerative
disease.
Dr. Suding earned a bachelor's degree from Williams College
and a Ph.D.in ecology and evolution from the University of
Michigan. She completed her postdoctoral work at the University
of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.
Dr. Suding is a community ecologist broadly interested in
the forces that control the rareness, dominance, and diversity
of species. She
studies how species interactions, plant-soil feedbacks, and
disturbance
influence patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem function.
Her research
addresses problems of invasive species, global change, and
habitat
restoration. Dr. Suding was selected by a committee of faculty
from EE
and ESS, and she is a key hire in our efforts to build the
program in
Global Biological Change.
Dr. Treseder received her undergraduate from University of
Utah and obtained her Ph.D at Stanford University.
My research interests encompass two related issues: (1) the
influence of global change (e.g. nitrogen deposition or elevated
atmospheric CO2) on the abundance and community composition
of fungi, and (2) consequences of any shifts in fungal growth
or diversity on nutrient dynamics of ecosystems. I am focusing
on one particular group of fungi: mycorrhizal fungi. These
microbes form mutualistic relationships with plants by colonizing
their roots and growing root-like hyphae into the soil, where
they take up nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen and
transfer a portion back to plants. Plants, in turn, provide
carbohydrates to the fungi to facilitate their growth. Relatively
new advances in technology and stable isotope techniques now
can be applied to these questions. For example, recent developments
in minirhizotrons (used to visually examine below-ground processes)
and immuno-labelling methods (which identify fungal tissue
to genus) allow me to quantify growth rates, lifespans, decomposition
rates, community composition, and standing biomass of mycorrhizal
fungi and other soil fungi in a wide range of ecosystems.
Stable isotopes like 13C and 15N can be used to track nutrients
from decomposing material to individual fungal species. Each
of these variables is crucial in estimating fluxes of nutrients
through the fungal pool. Approaches such as these should permit
a comprehensive examination of the role of fungi in the response
of nutrient dynamics to global change. Most of our field research
is conducted in Alaska, with sample analyses at UCI.
Sheryl
Tsai
Department of Molecular Biology
and Biochemistry
Dr. Tsai received her undergraduate and Master degrees in
Chemistry from National Taiwan University, where she studied
organometallics and organic synthesis. In 1999, Dr. Tsai received
her Ph.D. in Chemistry from UC Berkeley, where she studied
enzymology and biochemistry. Before joining UCI faculty, Dr.
Tsai was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, where
she studied structural enzymology of polyketide synthase (PKS)
and the application to natural product biosynthesis.
The research in Tsai Lab at UCI focuses on the biosynthesis
of natural products with high pharmaceutical impact, such
as polyketides, sugars and fatty acids. The biosynthesis of
these compounds is often accomplished by multi-domain enzyme
mega-complexes with remarkable architectures. The goal of
Tsai lab is to understand these multi-domain complexes and
to utilize nature’s approach of biosynthesis. The research
is highly inter-disciplinary: in terms of biology, it helps
understand the architecture, catalysis and dynamics of these
enzyme complexes that have biological significance; in terms
of chemistry, it leads to libraries of de novo natural product
analogs in a combinatorial fashion with high yield and efficiency.
Tau-Mu Yi Department of Developmental and Cell Biology
Dr. Yi received his undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard University, and his Ph.D. in Biology from MIT. He conducted his postdoctoral research in Systems Biology at Caltech.
Dr. Yi's lab is interested in understanding the robustness of biological systems, and in particular, the dynamics and regulation of G-protein signal transduction pathways. In yeast, haploid cells polarize and project toward their mating partner in response to peptide mating pheromones. The well-characterized signal transduction network mediating this behavior involves both heterotrimeric and small G-protein signaling with many features conserved in higher eukaryotes. The goal of this research is to demonstrate how the carefully controlled dynamics of G-protein signaling are essential for robust cell polarization. This lab uses a combination of quantitative experiments and mathematical modeling (i.e., Systems Biology).
