Microbial genome biology is a rapidly expanding field that couples genomics and proteomics with molecular, cellular, and structural biology to understand microbial organisms. Microbes offer unique advantages for graduate training because their smaller genomes and proteomes and their diverse metabolisms can be studied comprehensively, because they are highly amenable to currently emerging methodologies, because they fundamentally impact human health, agriculture, the economy, and the environment, and because they offer unparalleled insights into the evolution of life on earth. Our group provides graduate student training in Molecular and Genome Biology of Microbes. Participating labs offer state-of-the-art training in research areas that focus on molecular, biochemical, or structural approaches to study microbial transcription, gene regulation, regulatory RNAs, DNA replication, DNA recombination and DNA repair, transposition, and other genome biology processes. The focus group provides research training in systems biology approaches to analyze the operation and interactions of microbial regulatory circuits (gene arrays, proteomics, gene network and pathway modeling, computational biology, etc.). UW-Madison is a world-renowned leader in molecular studies of microbes, and brings together researchers from many departments (e.g., Bacteriology, Biochemistry, Biomolecular Chemistry, Genetics, Engineering, and Plant Pathology).
Our focus group hosts twice-monthly meetings of the “Microbial Mechanisms Forum” with an emphasis on graduate student presentations Tuesdays at 4 pm (check our web site for a current schedule and location). Our group also hosts a leading international meeting on microbial mechanisms at UW-Madison every August: “Molecular Genetics of Bacteria and Phages“.
Focus Group Chair Robert Landick
Biochemistry Department
Control of transcription elongation; RNA polymerase structure/function
landick@bact.wisc.edu
Focus Group Members
Daniel Amador-Noguez
Credentials: Bacteriology Department
Position title: Metabolic regulation in biofuel producing bacteria
Email: amadornoguez@wisc.edu
David Brow
Credentials: Biomolecular Chemistry Department
Position title: DNA transcription and RNA splicing in yeast
Email: dabrow@wisc.edu
Briana Burton
Credentials: Bacteriology Department
Position title: Macromolecule transport across membranes
Email: briana.burton@wisc.edu
Silvia Cavagnero
Credentials: Chemistry Department
Position title: Protein folding and aggregation in the cell, molecular chaperones, role of the ribosome in protein folding
Email: cavagnero@chem.wisc.edu
Scott Coyle
Credentials: Biochemistry Department
Position title: Understanding and engineering cell behavior.
Email: smcoyle@wisc.edu
Joseph Dillard
Credentials: Medical Microbiology & Immunology Department
Position title: Bacterial pathogenesis
Email: jpdillard@wisc.edu
Timothy Donohue
Credentials: Bacteriology Department
Position title: Process & control of bioenergy generation
Email: tdonohue@bact.wisc.edu
Catherine Fox
Credentials: Biomolecular Chemistry Department
Position title: Conservation and diversity in mechanisms that control the inheritance and expression of eukaryotic chromosomes
Email: cfox@wisc.edu
Paul Friesen
Credentials: Biochemistry Department
Position title: Apoptosis, programmed cell death, mechanisms of host-virus interactions, regulation of transcription, baculovirus evolution
Email: pfriesen@wisc.edu
Richard Gourse
Credentials: Bacteriology Department
Position title: Control of transcription initiation
Email: rgourse@bact.wisc.edu
Chris Hittinger
Credentials: Genetics Department
Position title: Molecular evolution of gene networks
Email: cthittinger@wisc.edu
Aaron Hoskins
Credentials: Biochemistry Department
Position title: Mechanisms of pre-mRNA Splicing
Email: ahoskins@wisc.edu
Andrew Hryckowian
Credentials: Medicine and Medical Microbiology & Immunology Department
Position title: Molecular mechanisms of microbiome dynamics
Email: Hryckowian@medicine.wisc.edu
Christina Hull
Credentials: Biomolecular Chemistry Department
Position title: Human fungal pathogen development & pathogenesis
Email: cmhull@wisc.edu
Mehdi Kabbage
Credentials: Plant Pathology Department
Position title: Plant fungal interactions; stress tolerance, programmed cell death
Email: kabbage@wisc.edu
Lindsay Kalan
Credentials: Medical Microbiology Department
Position title: Skin microbiome and wound healing
Email: lkalan@wisc.edu
James Keck
Credentials: Biomolecular Chemistry Department
Position title: DNA replication, recombination, and repair
Email: jlkeck@facstaff.wisc.edu
Nancy Keller
Credentials: Medical Microbiology & Immunology Department
Position title: Aspergillus cell biology
Email: npkeller@wisc.edu
Patricia Kiley
Credentials: Biomolecular Chemistry Department
Position title: Molecular genetics and biochemistry of oxygen regulated gene expression and transcription activation
Email: pjkiley@wisc.edu
Robert Kirchdoerfer
Credentials: Biochemistry Department
Position title: Single-particle cryo-electron microscopy of viral proteins
Email: rnkirchdoerf@wisc.edu
Bruce Klein
Credentials: Pediatrics Department
Position title: Immunology and pathogenesis of diseases due to fungi
Email: bsklein@pediatrics.wisc.edu
Laura Knoll
Credentials: Medical Microbiology & Immunology Department
Position title: Pathogenesis and developmental regulation in the parasite toxoplasma
Email: ljknoll@wisc.edu
Mark Mandel
Credentials: Medical Microbiology & Immunology Department
Position title: Genetic analysis of bacterial colonization
Email: mmandel@wisc.edu
Megan McClean
Credentials: Biomedical Engineering Department
Position title: Biological signal processing
Email: mmcclean@wisc.edu
Donna Neumann
Credentials: Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences Department
Position title: 3D chromatin control of DNA viruses
Email: dneumann3@wisc.edu
Aurelie Rakotondrafara
Credentials: Plant Pathology Department
Position title: RNA, translation, plant virus, IRES, viral resistance
Email: rakotondrafa@wisc.edu
Srivatsan Raman
Credentials: Biochemistry Department
Position title: Synthetic biology, protein design, metabolic engineering, allostery, directed evolution
Email: sraman4@wisc.edu
Philip Romero
Credentials: Biochemistry Department
Position title: Protein engineering
Email: promero2@wisc.edu
Wilmara Salgado-Pabon
Credentials: Pathobiological Sciences Department
Position title: S. aureus enterotoxin targeting of vascular endothelium
Email: wsalgado@wisc.edu
John-Demian (JD) Sauer
Credentials: Medical Microbiology & Immunology Department
Position title: Host-pathogen interactions
Email: sauer3@wisc.edu
Nathaniel Sharp
Credentials: Genetics Department
Position title: Spontaneous mutation rate and spectrum
Email: nathaniel.sharp@wisc.edu
Ophelia Venturelli
Credentials: Biochemistry Department
Position title: Systems and synthetic biology of genetic regulatory networks and microbial ecosystems
Email: venturelli@wisc.edu
Jade Wang
Credentials: Stress and genome integrity in bacteria
Position title: Stress and genome integrity in bacteria
Email: wang@bact.wisc.edu
Elizabeth Wright
Credentials: Biochemistry Department
Position title: Cryo-electron microscopy of biological macromolecular machines
Email: erwright2@wisc.edu
John-Paul (JP) Yu
Credentials: Radiology Department
Position title: Neuroimaging, neuropsychiatric disorders, autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, systems neuroscience
Email: jpyu@uwhealth.org