Primary (Assistant Professor and above)

Bayer, K. Ulrich , Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1996, Heinrich-Pette-Institute
Molecular memory mechanisms in cellular signal transduction and neuronal function; CaMKII and Ca2+ signaling.

Churchill, Mair E. A., Professor
Ph.D., 1987, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Structure and mechanism in gene regulation; biophysical and structural studies of protein-nucleic acid and protein-protein complexes in chromatin and bacterial pathogenesis.

Cramer, Scott D., Professor
Ph.D., 1992, Univ. of California, Santa Cruz
The molecular dissection of signaling pathways in prostatic cells, the identification of prostate progenitor or stem cells, and understanding epithelial-stromal interactions in normal and abnormal ductal morphogenesis.

Dell'Acqua, Mark L., Associate Professor and Vice Chairman
Ph.D., 1995, Harvard Univ.
Organization of signaling complexes by protein kinase and phosphatase anchoring proteins; mechanisms regulating neuronal second messenger signaling in synaptic plasticity.

Ford, Heide L., Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1995, Univ. of Rochester
The Six family of homeoproteins, and their transcriptional cofactors, Eya and Dach.

Heidenreich, Kim A., Professor
Ph.D., 1979, Univ. of Vermont
Signal transduction pathways that regulate neuronal survival and apoptosis.

Hoffman, Paula L., Professor
Ph.D., 1974, City Univ. of New York
Neuropharmacology; mechanisms of alcohol tolerance, dependence, and craving; genetic aspects of alcohol dependence and affective disorders; biochemical/molecular biological/genetic analysis of CNS receptors and signal transduction systems.

Hunter, Lawrence E., Professor
Ph.D., 1989, Yale Univ.
Computational biology, bioinformatics, gene expression array analysis, natural language processing, biomedical ontologies, machine learning.

Jones, David N. M., Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1989, Univ. of Cambridge
Molecular mechanism of alcohols and anesthetic actions; structure and function of biomolecules; NMR spectroscopy, x-ray crystallography, biophysics and molecular biology.

Kennedy, Matthew J., Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 2003, Univ. of Washington
Molecular mechanisms of activity-triggered synaptic remodeling.

Kutateladze, Tatiana G., Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1988, Moscow State Univ.
Epigenetics, phosphoinositide signaling, structural biology, NMR and crystal structures of proteins implicated in cancer, structure based drug design.

Murphy, Robert C., University Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., 1970, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Pharmacology and biochemistry of leukotrienes and bioactive lipids, lipid mediators of cellular response using biochemical mass spectrometry.

Saba, Laura, Assistant Research Professor
Ph.D., 2007, Univ. of Colorado, UCDHSC
Statistical genetics and gene expression regulation.

Sather, William A., Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1988, Univ. of Washington
Signaling through calcium channels in neurons.

Tabakoff, Boris , Professor
Ph.D., 1970, Univ. of Colorado, Boulder
Molecular pharmacology; pharmacogenetics; neuroadaptation and neurotransmitter metabolism/enzymology; CNS receptor molecular pharmacology and genetics/genomics of addiction.

Thorburn, Andrew M., Professor and Chairman
D.Phil., 1990, Univ. of Oxford
Understanding the signaling mechanisms that control apoptosis in cancer development and during the response of tumor cells to cancer therapeutics.

Traystman, Richard J., University Distinguished Professor and Vice Chancellor for Research
Ph.D., 1971, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Neuroscience, cerebrovascular physiology, stroke, cardiac arrest/CPR, respiration, cardiopulmonary physiology.

Tucker, Chandra L., Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 1999, Univ. of Washington
Study and manipulation of protein homeostasis and signaling pathways in live cells, optogenetic tools for controlling protein interactions, synthetic biology, cytosolic protein misfolding, yeast genetics/genomics

Zahniser, Nancy R., Professor and School of Medicine Associate Dean for Research Education
Ph.D., 1977, Univ. of Pittsburgh
Mechanisms involved in dopamine transporter trafficking; cocaine's differential actions among individuals; brain neurotransmitter receptor regulation.

Secondary and Training

Benke, Timothy A., Associate Professor
M.D./Ph.D., 1995, Baylor College of Medicine
Mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and impacts of development and epilepsy.

Eisenmesser, Elan Z., Assistant Professor
Ph.D., 1998, Purdue Univ.
Viral protein/host protein interactions, enzyme dynamics, and ligand/receptor interactions involved in cancer progression.

Fennessey, Paul V., Professor
Ph.D., 1968, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Solutions to clinical problems using stable isotopes and mass spectrometry.

Freed, Curt R., Professor
M.D., 1969, Harvard Univ.
The dynamic role of dopamine in movement; neural transplantation for Parkinson’s disease.

Freedman, Robert M. D., Professor
M.D., 1972, Harvard Univ.
Central nervous system physiology and pharmacology and its application to clinical psychiatry.

Heasley, Lynn E., Professor
Ph.D., 1985, Univ. of California, San Diego
Investigating the role of MAP kinases and specific receptor tyrosine kinases in normal and transformed growth of lung epithelial cells using techniques of molecular and cell biology in lung epithelial cells and human lung cancer cell lines.

Henson, Peter M., Professor
Ph.D., 1967, Cambridge Univ., UK
Inflammatory process as a paradigm of complex interacting cell networks and communication molecules and as a component of human diseases.

Hodges, Robert S., Professor
Ph.D., 1971, Univ. of Alberta
Structure-function studies of multi-protein complexes; de novo design of model proteins to test our understanding of protein folding and structure and to design proteins with the desired biological/immunological activities; synthetic peptide vaccines and .

Kappler, John W., Professor
Ph.D., 1970, Brandeis Univ.
The study of the interaction between the T cell receptor and its signal ligands.

Kieft, Jeffrey S., Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1997, Univ. of California, Berkeley
The way by which viral RNAs, with their diverse and dynamic structures, can hijack the machinery of an infected cell and using this information to understand basic biological processes..

Leonard, Sherry S., Professor
Ph.D., 1986, Univ. of Colorado, UCDHSC
Molecular neurobiology of nicotine addiction in mental illness.

Leslie, Christina C., Professor
Ph.D., 1975, Univ. of Georgia
Signal transduction mechanisms regulating phospholipase A2 activation and the production of lipid mediators of inflammation.

Li, Chuan-Yuan , Professor
Ph.D., 1993, Harvard Univ.
Molecular mechanisms of tumor response to therapy; roles of stem cells in tumor response to therapy.

Malkinson, Alvin M., Professor
Ph.D., 1968, Johns Hopkins Univ.
Genetics of susceptibility to lung tumors in mice; mechanisms of lung tumor promotion; signal transduction.

McKinsey, Timothy A., Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1998, Vanderbilt Univ.
Epigenetic regulation of heart failure; signaling and transcriptional mechanisms of muscle disease.

Nemenoff, Raphael A., Professor
Ph.D., 1977, Cornell Univ.
Signaling pathways controlling growth and differentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells; Role of eicosanoids in lung cancer.

Petersen, Dennis R., Professor
Ph.D., 1974, Univ. of Wyoming
Molecular mechanisms of chemical and drug toxicity.

Port, J. David , Professor
Ph.D., 1989, Univ. of Utah
G-protein linked receptors and their regulation; regulation of mRNA stability.

Riches, David W. H., Professor
Ph.D., 1979, Univ. of Birmingham
Signal transduction by TNF receptor family members and their involvement in macrophage development; Regulation of myofibroblast and macrophage apoptosis and survival in pulmonary fibrosis and cystic fibrosis.

Serkova, Natalie J., Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1996, Univ. of Bremen
Animal Imaging (MRI, PET, CT); Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) based metabonomics; Cancer Metabolism and Physiology; Anti-Cancer Drugs; Ischemia/Reperfusion in Organs.

Sikela, James M., Professor
Ph.D., 1983, Case Western Reserve Univ.
Neurogenomics; disease gene discovery; human genome evolution and variation.

Theodorescu, Dan, Professor and Director of the Univ. of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center
M.D., 1986, Queen's Univ. Faculty of Health Sciences; Ph.D., 1993, Univ. of Toronto
I'm a physician scientist. Our translational molecular biology laboratory focuses on identifying the molecular mechanisms leading to bladder cancer metastasis and their potential applications to patients with this disease. Our group is at the forefront of the development of biomarkers and therapeutics in bladder cancer. My clinical practice is limited to bladder cancer management including surgery such as radical cystectomy using state of the art robotic techniques (i.e. da Vinci).

Wang, Xiao-Jing , Professor
M.D., 1984, Beijing Medical Univ.
TGF-beta signal transduction, molecular mechanisms of cancer development and progression, functions of tumor suppressors and oncogenes..

Weiser-Evans, Mary, Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1992, Colorado State Univ.
Defining the molecular signaling mechanisms regulating vascular smooth muscle cell function in the setting of vascular fibroproliferative diseases, including restenosis and pulmonary hypertension.

Emeriti/ae

Deitrich, Richard A., Professor Emeritus
Ph.D., 1959, Univ. of Colorado, UCDHSC
Metabolism of alcohols and aldehydes; behavioral pharmacogenetics.

Maller, James L., Professor Emeritus
Ph.D., 1974, Univ. of California, Berkeley
Biochemistry of cell division and early development; cell cycle control; protein phosphorylation and oncogene action.