Biochemistry - Research Overview

The Department of Biochemistry is committed to basic research and training undergraduate and graduate students for careers in biochemistry, molecular biology, medicine, health sciences, and other science-related careers. Our faculty, graduate students, and staff are located in the Biochemistry Building with additional offices and laboratories in the Hansen Life Science Research Building, Whistler Agricultural Research Building and Hockmeyer Hall of Structural Biology.

The research programs of the department span fundamental plant and biomedical biochemistry.

Research Areas

• Metabolic and Natural Product Biochemistry
• Omics: Genomics, Proteomics and Metabolomics
• Cancer Biochemistry
• Epigenetics and Gene Expression
• Structure, Dynamics and Function of Biological Macromolecules
• Bioinformatics and Computational Genomics

Affiliated Units

• Purdue Center for Cancer Research
• Institute of Drug Discovery
• Center for Plant Biology
• Institute for Integrative Neuroscience
• Bindley Biosciences Center
• Institute for Inflammation, Immunology and Infectious Disease

Faculty and Research Areas

Scott Briggs sdbriggs@purdue.edu
Epigenetics, Antifungal Drug Resistance and Fungal Pathogenesis

Clint Chapple chapple@purdue.edu
Biochemistry and molecular biology of plant secondary metabolism

Kyle Cottrell cottrellka@purdue.edu
RNA editing, post-transcriptional regulation, and cancer

Brian Dilkes bdilkes@purdue.edu
Plant Genetics

Natalia Dudareva dudareva@purdue.edu
Plant biochemistry and molecular biology

Barbara Golden barbgolden@purdue.edu
Structural basis for RNA function

Humaira Gowher hgowher@purdue.edu
Regulation of DNA methylation in development and disease

Mark Hall mchall@purdue.edu
Cell cycle regulation and fungal pathogenesis

Majid Kazemian kazemian@purdue.edu
Research area: Studying gene regulation in viral associated cancers, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases

Ann Kirchmaier kirchmaier@purdue.edu
Epigenetic processes that mediate heritable modifications to chromatin

Xing Liu xingliu@purdue.edu
Roles and regulations of ubiquitin-proteasome dependent protein degradation

Andrew Mesecar amesecar@purdue.edu
Gene-to Lead Drug Discovery

Lisa Mydy lmydy@purdue.edu
Protein structure and function in plant natural product biosynthesis

Joe Ogas ogas@purdue.edu
Regulation of cell identity, signal transduction, chromatin remodeling

Sujith Puthiyaveetil spveetil@purdue.edu
Genetic and molecular control of photosynthetic light utilization

W. Andy Tao watao@purdue.edu
Proteomics and biological mass spectrometry

Elizabeth Tran ejtran@purdue.edu
RNA helicases and Post-transcriptional gene regulation

Feng Wang wang6914@purdue.edu
Molecular mechanisms of RNA-mediated gene silencing

Vikki Weake vweake@purdue.edu
Chromatin modifying complexes in Drosophila development as a model for neurodegenerative disease and cancer

Clinical Teaching Faculty

Ben Carter bccarter@purdue.edu
Clinical Assistant Professor

Orla Hart ohart@purdue.edu
Clinical Associate Professor

RESEARCH Faculty

Hana Hall hallh@purdue.edu
Research Assistant Professor
Molecular mechanisms of aging and neurodegenerative disease, with focus on gene expression regulation, R-loop biology, and RNA epigenetics.

Joint/Courtesy Appointment Faculty

Seema Mattoo smattoo@purdue.edu
(Biochemistry, Signal Transduction, and Microbiology) Investigation of Fic domain containing proteins in Cellular Signaling. Post-translational modification of proteins is a common theme in signal transduction.

John Morgan jamorgan@purdue.edu
Metabolic engineering of photosynthetic microbes and mathematical modeling of metabolism and transport of plant volatiles

Pete Pascuzzi ppascuzz@purdue.edu
Bioinformatics; research data management; chromatin organization; DNA replication