ANN ARBOR The University of Michigan continues to build on its already prestigious Life Sciences R&D efforts by announcing Friday two new centers at its Life Sciences Institute The Center for Chemical Genomics and The Center for Structural Biology.
The announcement were made Friday at the LSTs Grand Opening Convocation.
Our recruiting is going well and now is the time to begin initiatives that will really help to bring scientists together across scientific fields, said Director Alan Saltiel. These programs are at the forefront of scientific discovery and will catalyze interactions across the campus.
The Center for Chemical Genomics (CCG) will apply the latest high-throughput laboratory technology to the search for small molecular tools that will help researchers explore living cells. These molecular tools will enable researchers to measure the cells dynamic systems in action, relatively non-invasively. CCG tools may help discover how cells communicate, how they turn genes on and off, how they release newly-made proteins, or send broken parts to the trash can. The heart of the CCG will be a robotic lab capable of screening tens of thousands of candidate molecules for possible effects on cells. This will be a core collaboratory for LSI scientists and other U-M researchers.
The Center for Structural Biology is a critical mass of leading researchers shedding light on the very specific shapes and forms of molecules in the living cell and studying how they interact with one another in health and disease. The collaboratory is centered on a protein production facility and an x-ray crystallography suite. This facility also serves as a core laboratory for all U-M researchers interested in understanding the three-dimensional structure of proteins.
The Life Sciences Institute is a newly established research unit of U-M that serves as a hub for multidisciplinary scientific collaborations which
will shape the biological revolution.
In a related announcement, the LSI also announced its faculty has grown to 13. The faculty includes :
Geneticist David Ginsburg, M.D. is studying human families with bleeding disorders such as hemophilia, and mice with genetic knockouts, to understand the genes and biomolecules that control the blood-clotting response.
Biological chemist Kun-Liang Guan, Ph.D. studies the enzyme chemical reactions that regulate cell division, growth and differentiation, which are crucial to understanding disease states like cancer, arthritis and diabetes.
Cell biologist Daniel Klionsky, Ph.D. is using bakers yeast as a model organism to uncover intriguing clues into a variety of human diseases, including cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons.
Systems biologist Anuj Kumar, Ph.D. surveys large numbers of genes and proteins in bakers yeast, using computers and robotic sample handling, and has discovered more than 137 new genes.
Pathologist John Lowe, M.D. is exploring the complex sugars which coat the outside of animal cells to better understand cellular signaling and inflammatory diseases including arthritis, psoriasis and hardening of the arteries.
Biological chemist Rowena Matthews, Ph.D. studies riboflavin and folic acid, and has contributed to the recommendation that all people should consume more folic acid to prevent heart disease and birth defects.
Structural biologist Gabrielle (Gabby) Rudenko, Ph.D. focuses on the structure and function of proteins that regulate the brains recovery from damage due to drugs or injuries.
Cell biologist and LSI Director Alan Saltiel, Ph.D. studies the hormone insulin and its role in regulating cellular sugar levels and facilitating cell-to-cell communication.
Medicinal chemist David Sherman Ph.D. explores the biochemical pathways of marine microorganisms, with a goal of finding new drug candidates for infectious diseases and cancer. He also directs LSIs new Center for Chemical Genomics.
Structural biologist Janet L. Smith Ph.D. examines the three-dimensional shapes of enzymes that are critical to multi-stage chemical reactions in the cell. Her work also examines structures in infectious pathogens including the RNA viruses that cause West Nile, yellow fever and dengue.
B. Joseph White Ph.D., a professor of business administration, former
Dean of the Business School and former interim president of the
University of Michigan, joins the LSI as a Research Professor to explore
an initiative on personalized medicine.
Biological chemist Xian-Zhong Shawn Xu, Ph.D. is a physiologist who studies cellular signaling by calcium ions in the model organism C. elegans, a nematode worm. His work explores nervous system development and sperm fertility in the worms.
Structural biologist Zhaohui Xu, Ph.D. is examining molecular chaperones that help newly made proteins fold into the proper three-dimensional shape. Misshapen proteins are known to be a factor in Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases, diabetes, high cholesterol, mad cow disease, and bacterial infections and are probably involved in countless other conditions as well.
