Marvin Paule - Professor, Transitional Retirement
Ph.D., University of California, Davis
Growth Regulation of Ribosomal RNA Expression in Normal and Cancer Cells
Up to 85% of all transcription in cancerous and other rapidly growing cells is for ribosome elaboration. Indeed, progression to cancerous growth requires misregulation of rRNA transcription. Numerous tumor suppressors (retinoblastoma protein, p53, p300, CBP) target regulation of rRNA expression, and many known tumor promoting viruses (human papilloma virus, the cause of most uterine cancers, SV40) disrupt this regulation. Controlling rRNA transcription controls cellular growth rate. We are studying initiation and regulation of the polymerase I and III transcribed ribosomal genes, with an emphasis on the fundamental mechanisms of each stage of the process. Our long term aim is to develop therapies targeting the most fundamental step in neoplasia.

Robert Woody - Professor Emeritus
Ph. D., University of California, Berkeley
Biomolecular Spectroscopy
We study the structure of proteins and how proteins fold, using spectroscopic methods: absorption, circular dichroism, fluorescence, nuclear magnetic resonance. We are also developing methods to predict the circular dichroism of proteins from structures obtained by X-ray diffraction or NMR, and ultimately from molecular modeling and structure prediction methods.