COLLEGE STATION, Texas (April 7, 2008) -- The Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine is pleased to announce that Sarah E. Bondos has been hired as an Assistant Professor.  Dr. Bondos joins the department this month.

Dr. Bondos received her B.S. in Chemistry with honors and distinction from the University of North Carolina in 1993, and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois in 1998 working with Dr. Stephen Sligar and Dr. Jiri Jonas.  She trained as a postdoctoral fellow at Rice University, working with Dr. Kathleen Matthews. She was subsequently a faculty fellow from 2004-2008 at Rice University, where she will remain an adjunct assistant professor.

Dr. Bondos has been working on Hox transcription factors as master regulators and biomaterials.  Her research has been published in journals such as Analytical Biochemistry, Biochemisitry, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry.  She has been invited to write three review articles, including one for Science’s Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment  (STKE).  She has also been invited to speak at several scientific meetings and presented many invited seminars at other institutions.

Her research focuses on the folding, structure, and function of Hox transcription factors, which drive key aspects of development, evolution, wound repair, stem cell differentiation, and carcinogenesis.  Her long-term goals are to discover regions outside Hox homeodomains that enhance DNA binding specificity and respond to conformational changes, tissue-specific alternative splicing, protein interactions, and cell signaling cascades using a combination of biophysical, cell biological, and genetic approaches in vitro and in vivo.

Dr. Bondos has also developed methods to control aggregation of the Drosophila Hox protein Ultrabithorax to generate novel biomaterials.  This protein self-associates into fibers 50 nm in diameter, which further assemble into a variety of remarkably strong and elastic materials: films, thick sheets, ropes, bundles, lattices, and baskets.  She plans to characterize the structure and mechanical properties of these biomaterials, and integrate novel functions via nanoparticle binding and chimera formation with heterologous proteins.