Biochemistry and Structural Biology Faculty
Much of the research in this emphasis group focuses on understanding how proteins are synthesized and assembled into functional macromolecules. State of the art biophysical technologies are exploited to define mechanisms for protein folding, and protein trafficking in the endoplasmic reticulum and nucleus.
Reverse genetic approaches are used to elucidate the roles of newly discovered proteins and define functional protein domains. Most researchers have strong collaborative ties with Texas A&M University groups in the Chemistry and Biochemistry/Biophysics Departments.
Arthur Johnson
Dr. Arthur Johnson received his B.S. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. After teaching and coaching at Milton Academy near Boston for five years, he earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Oregon in 1973. He then received a Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship to do postdoctoral research at Columbia University. He joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma in 1977, and in 1994 became the holder of the E.L. Wehner-Welch Chair at Texas A&M, where he is also Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Biophysics. Johnson has taught lecture and laboratory courses in biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, and physics at various levels.
Geoffrey Kapler
Dr. Geoffrey Kapler received his B.S. in Biology from the University of Connecticut in 1979 and his Ph.D. in Genetics from Harvard University in 1989, working with Stephen Beverley. He did postdoctoral research with Elizabeth Blackburn at the University of California, San Francisco, prior to joining the Texas A&M faculty in 1994. He is an Associate Member of Biochemistry and Biophysics. He has taught courses in medical genetics, yeast genetics and nucleic acid-protein interactions.
Gregg Wells
Gregg B. Wells is an Assistant Professor of Molecular and Cellular Medicine. He received his B.A. (with distinction) in Chemistry from Northwestern University in 1981. He earned his Ph.D. in Biophysical and Theoretical Biology from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1987 and his M.D. was awarded from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in 1989. From 1989-1996 he completed his residency in anatomic pathology and fellowship in neuropathology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He is certified in anatomic pathology with special certification in neuropathology by the American Board of Pathology. He joined the faculty at Texas A&M Health Science Center in 1999.
J. Martin Scholtz
Dr. Marty Scholtz received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Nebraska Lincoln in 1984, where he did undergraduate research with Professor Sheldon M. Schuster. He then obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California Berkeley in 1989, working in the laboratory of Professor Paul A. Bartlett. After postdoctoral work with Robert L. Baldwin at Stanford University, he joined the faculty of Texas A&M in 1993, where he is also a Professor of Department of Biochemistry & Biophysics. He was named Interim Head of the Dept. of Medical Biochemistry & Genetics in 2003 and Head of the new Department of Molecular & Cellular Medicine in 2006. He has taught courses in medical biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology and spectroscopy.
C. Nick Pace
Dr. Nick Pace received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 1962, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Duke University in 1966 working with Dr. Charles Tanford. His postdoctoral work was in the Chemistry Dept. at Cornell University working with Dr. Gordon Hammes. He joined the faculty at Texas A&M in 1968. In 1982 he took a Sabbatical at the MRC Centre in Cambridge England working with Dr. Tom Creighton and Dr. Alan Barrett. In 1992 he was a Visiting Professor at Osaka University in the Institute for Protein Research.
Siegfried Musser
Dr. Musser earned an A.B. degree in Biochemistry with High Distinction from the University of California, Berkeley in 1990. He then obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1996, working in the laboratory of Sunney I. Chan. After postdoctoral work at the University of California, Davis with Steven Theg from 1996-1999 and postdoctoral work at Brandeis University with Jeff Gelles from 1999-2001, he joined the faculty of Texas A&M in 2001.
Van Wilson
B.S. Georgia Institute of Technology (1975). Ph.D. Case Western Reserve University (1980). Postdoctoral. State University of New York (1980-83).
