Faculty Directory

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TPCB students have unparalleled opportunities to work with over 50 faculty members on diverse research topics in chemical biology at Weill Cornell, Rockefeller, and Sloan Kettering. Our faculty includes a combination of internationally-recognized luminaries and emerging scientific leaders of the future. Our laboratories are well-funded, with over $50 million in NIH research grants and an NIH Chemistry–Biology Interface Training Grant. Our faculty have been recognized with numerous major awards, including the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Prof. Roderick MacKinnon in 2003 and a MacArthur Fellowship to Prof. Vanessa Ruta in 2019. We also include 10 members of the National Academy of Sciences, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, 6 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 6 current Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators, 2 NCI Outstanding Investigators, 12 NIGMS MIRA Awardees, 2 NINDS Research Program Awardees, 2 NIH Director’s Pioneer Awardees, 11 NIH Director’s New Innovators, a NIH Director’s Early Independence Awardee, 3 NIH Pathway to Independence Awardees, an NSF CAREER Awardee, and an HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow.

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Faculty Member	Institution	Research Topics	Therapeutic Areas	Research Description
Gregory Alushin, PhDNIH Director’s Early Independence Awardee	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Cryo-electron microscopy, Single molecule methods, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Biotechnology: Protein engineering	Cancer, Cardiovascular	Mechanisms of cellular force sensing; cytoskeletal biophysics
Heeseon An, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, Chemical probe development, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Proteomics, Biotechnology: Protein engineering	Cancer	Protein homeostasis and chemical cell biology
Olaf Andersen, MD*	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Single molecule methods	Immunology, Microbiology, Neuroscience	Molecular mechanisms of ion channels
Daniel Bachovchin, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Proteomics, Activity-based protein profiling	Cancer, Immunology, Microbiology	Chemical probe discovery and characterization
John Blenis, PhD	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Proteomics, Metabolomics	Cancer	Signal transduction pathways and cancer cell biology
Steve Bonilla, PhD HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Cryo-electron microscopy, Single molecule methods	Virology	Three-dimensional structure and function of cellular and viral RNAs
Olga Boudker, PhD HHMI Investigator Member, National Academy of Sciences	Weill Cornell	Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, Biotechnology: Protein engineering	Neuroscience	Molecular mechanisms of membrane transporters
Sean Brady, PhD NIGMS MIRA Awardee HHMI Early Career Scientist	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: Natural product biosynthesis, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, NMR spectroscopy, Biotechnology	Cancer, Microbiology	Genetically encoded small molecules
Jochen Buck, MD, PhD	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, High-throughput screening assays, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Chemical Cell Biology: Proteomics, Metabolomics	Cancer, Cardiovascular, Diabetes, Microbiology	Biology of soluble adenylyl cyclases
Elizabeth Campbell, PhD	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Cryo-electron microscopy, Chemical Cell Biology: Activity-based protein profiling	Microbiology, Virology	Biochemical and structural studies in microbial pathogens
Brian Chait, DPhil	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Proteomics, Biotechnology: Protein engineering, Nanotechnology, Computational Chemistry: Docking, Protein modeling	Cancer, Immunology, Microbiology, Neuroscience, Virology	Mass spectrometery and gaseous ion chemistry
Jue Chen, PhD HHMI Investigator Member, National Academy of Sciences	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, Cryo-electron microscopy	Cancer, Immunology, Microbiology	Structure and regulation of ATP-powered membrane transporters
Shuibing Chen, PhD NIH Director’s New Innovator	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics	Cancer, Cardiovascular, Diabetes	Stem cell and chemical biology
Gabriela Chiosis, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical methodology, Rational drug design, High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Cellular imaging, Proteomics, Biotechnology: Radiochemistry, Computational Chemistry: Docking, Protein modeling	Cancer, Neuroscience	Heat shock proteins – chemical biology and drug discovery
John Chodera, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, High-throughput screening assays, Macromolecular Structure and Function, Biotechnology: Protein engineering, Computational Chemistry: Cheminformatics, Docking, Protein modeling	Cancer, Virology	Effects of small molecules on biomolecular macromolecules and cellular pathways
Arvin Dar, PhDNIH Director’s New Innovator	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, X-ray crystallography, Mass spectrometry Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Proteomics, Activity-based protein profiling	Cancer, Immunology	Targeting cancer pathways with chemical switches and molecular glues
Seth Darst, PhDMember, National Academy of Sciences NIGMS MIRA Awardee	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, Computational Chemistry: Protein modeling	Microbiology	Structural aspects of transcription
Yael David, PhD NIGMS MIRA Early Stage Investigator	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Cellular imaging, Activity-based protein profiling, Biotechnology: Protein engineering	Cancer, Diabetes, Virology	Epigenetic regulation and cancer
Melinda Diver, PhD NIH Pathway to Independence Awardee	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, Cryo-electron microscopy	Neuroscience	Structure and function of somatosensory ion channels
David Eliezer, PhD NIGMS MIRA Awardee	Weill Cornell	Macromolecular Structure and Function: NMR spectroscopy, Computational Chemistry: Protein modeling	Neuroscience	Biological role of non-native protein structure
Jacob Geri, PhD NIGMS MIRA Early Stage Investigator	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Proteomics	Cancer, Immunology	Optically controlled proximity labeling and high-throughput proteomics
Steven Gross, PhD	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical methodology, High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Proteomics, Metabolomics		Metabolomics, metabolite profiling, stable isotope tracing, pathway analysis
Lorraine Gudas, PhD	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Metabolomics	Cancer, Diabetes	Retinoid pharmacology
Daniel Heller, PhDNIH Director’s New Innovator NSF CAREER Awardee	Sloan Kettering	Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Biotechnology: Nanotechnology	Cancer	Nanochemistry for molecular sensors and targeted therapeutics
Richard Hite, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Macromolecular structure and function: X-ray crystallography, Cryo-electron microscopy, Single molecule methods	Cancer, Neuroscience	Structural and functional characterization of ion channels
Morgan Huse, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical probe development, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Cellular imaging	Cancer, Immunology	Chemical biology of lymphocyte signalling
Samie Jaffrey, MD, PhD NINDS Research Program Awardee	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Cellular imaging, Proteomics, Metabolomics	Cancer, Diabetes, Neuroscience	Neuronal signal transduction and chemical biology
Xuejun Jiang, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughout screening assays, Chemical proble development, Rational drug design, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Proteomics, Metabolomics	Cancer, Cardiovascular, Neuroscience	Cell death and autophagy, mechanisms and drug discovery
Tarun Kapoor, PhD NIGMS MIRA Awardee	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Mass spectrometry, Single molecule methods, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Cellular imaging, Proteomics	Cancer	Chemistry and cell biology
Alex Kentsis, MD, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, Macromolecular Structure and Function, Chemical Cell Biology: Proteomics, Biotechnology: Protein engineering, Computational Chemistry	Cancer	Functional proteomics in cancer
Kayvan Keshari, PhD NIH Pathway to Independence Awardee	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, NMR spectroscopy, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Metabolomics	Cancer	Cancer metabolism and metabolic imaging
Sebastian Klinge, PhDNIH Director’s New Innovator	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, X-ray crystallography		Structural aspects of eukaryotic ribosome assembly
Joshua Levitz, PhD NIGMS MIRA Early Stage Investigator	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, Chemical probe development,Macromolecular Structure and Function: Single molecule methods, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Biotechnology: Protein engineering	Neuroscience	Neurotransmitter receptor molecular biophysics and neurophysiology
Yueming Li, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Cellular imaging, Proteomics, Activity-based protein profiling	Cancer, Neuroscience	Biology of transmembrane proteases
Christopher Lima, PhD HHMI Investigator Member, National Academy of Sciences Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences NIGMS MIRA Awardee	Sloan Kettering	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Cryo-electron microscopy, Enzymology, X-ray crystallography		Structural basis of protein sumoylation and RNA stability
Shixin Liu, PhDNIH Pathway to Independence Awardee NIH Director’s New Innovator	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Single molecule methods, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Biotechnology: Nanotechnology	Cancer, Microbiology, Virology	Dynamic interplay of gene expression machineries
Stephen Long, PhD NIGMS MIRA Awardee	Sloan Kettering	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, X-ray crystallography	Cancer, Immunology, Neuroscience	Structure and function of ion channels and membrane-embedded enzymes
Minkui Luo, PhD NIGMS MIRA Awardee NIH Director’s New Innovator	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Proteomics, Activity-based protein profiling, Biotechnology: Protein engineering	Cancer, Neuroscience	Protein post-translational modification and inhibitor design
Jiankun Lyu, PhD	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, Chemical probe development, Biotechnology: Protein engineering, Computational Chemistry: Cheminformatics, Docking, Protein modeling	Cancer, Immunology, Microbiology, Neuroscience, Virology	Computational methods to discover novel small-molecule therapeutics
Roderick MacKinnon, MD HHMI Investigator 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Member, National Academy of Sciences	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy	Neuroscience	Structure and function of ion channels and associated regulatory proteins
Luciano Marraffini, PhD HHMI Investigator Member, National Academy of Sciences Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences NIH Director’s Pioneer Awardee NIH Director’s New Innovator HHMI Faculty Scholar	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function, Biotechnology	Microbiology	Bacteriology; mechanisms that prevent horizontal gene transfer
Frederick Maxfield, PhD*	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging	Cardiovascular, Neuroscience	Biophysical chemistry of membrane traffic
Anant Menon, PhD	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Proteomics	Cardiovascular	Trafficking of membrane lipids; protein lipidation and glycosylation
Tobias Meyer, PhD NIGMS MIRA Awardee	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging		Cell signaling, cell migration, cell proliferation decisions
Crina Nimigean, PhD	Weill Cornell	Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, Single molecule methods, Biotechnology: Protein engineering, Nanotechnology		Ion channel structure and mechanism
Nikola Pavletich, PhD Member, National Academy of Sciences Member, National Academy of Medicine Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences	Sloan Kettering	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, X-ray crystallography	Cancer	Structural biology of the cell cycle
Alexandros Pertsinidis, PhDNIH Director’s New Innovator	Sloan Kettering	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Single molecule methods, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Biotechnology: Nanotechnology		Single-molecule and single-cell studies of gene regulation
Viviana Risca, PhD NIH Director’s New Innovator	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical probe development, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Cellular imaging, Biotechnology: Radiochemistry, Computational Chemistry: Protein modeling	Cancer	3D chromatin organization and mechanisms of transcriptional repression
Jeremy Rock, PhD NIH Director’s New Innovator	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics	Microbiology	Tuberculosis host–pathogen interactions and antibiotics
Neal Rosen, MD, PhDNCI Outstanding Investigator	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical probe development, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics	Cancer	Mechanism-based therapeutic strategies for cancer
Michael Rout, PhD	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy, Mass spectrometry, Cryo-electron microscopy, Single molecule methods Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Proteomics, Biotechnology: Protein engineering, Computational Chemistry: Protein modeling	Cancer, Immunology, Virology	Structure and mechanisms of the nuclear pore complex
Vanessa Ruta, PhD HHMI Investigator 2019 MacArthur Fellow NINDS Research Program Awardee NIH Director’s New Innovator	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging	Neuroscience	Neurophysiology and behavior; innate and adaptive animal neural circuits
Timothy Ryan, PhD Member, National Academy of Sciences NINDS MERIT Awardee	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Single molecule methods, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Biotechnology	Neuroscience	Physical chemistry of the synapse
Thomas Sakmar, MD	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, Chemical probe development, Macromolecular Structure and Function: X-ray crystallography, Single molecule methods, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Proteomics, Biotechnology: Protein engineering, Nanotechnology, Computational Chemistry: Protein modeling	Diabetes, Neuroscience, Virology	Molecular mechanisms of transmembrane signaling
David Scheinberg, MD, PhD* NCI Outstanding Investigator	Sloan Kettering	Biotechnology: Protein engineering, Nanotechnology, Radiochemistry	Cancer, Immunology	Molecular pharmacology & chemistry; targeted immunotherapies
Simon Scheuring, PhD NIH Director’s Pioneer Awardee	Weill Cornell	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Single molecule methods, Chemical Cell Biology: Cellular imaging, Biotechnology: Nanotechnology	Microbiology, Neuroscience	Atomic force microscopy of membrane protein structure-function
Stewart Shuman, MD, PhD Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences NIGMS MIRA Awardee	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, X-ray crystallography	Microbiology	Nucleic acid metabolism
Derek Tan, PhD	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical methodology, Total synthesis, Rational drug design, Diversity-oriented synthesis, High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Computational Chemistry: Cheminformatics, Docking	Cancer, Microbiology	Design and discovery of novel antibiotics and anticancer agents
Ekaterina Vinogradova, PhD	Rockefeller	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical probe development, High-throughput screening assays, Rational drug design, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Mass spectometry, Enzymology, Chemical Cell Biology: Proteomics, Activity-based protein profiling	Cancer, Immunology, Neuroscience, Microbiology, Chemical Cell Biology: Proteomics, Activity-based protein profiling	Chemical proteomic technologies to profile and perturb immune protein function
Thomas Walz, PhD	Rockefeller	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Cryo-electron microscopy	Cancer	Mechanisms underlying macromolecular machines and lipid-protein interactions
Harel Weinstein, DSc*	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: Rational drug design, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Single molecule methods, Computational Chemistry: Protein modeling	Cancer, Neuroscience	Biophysical and physiological mechanisms of membranes and membrane proteins
Pengbo Zhou, PhD	Weill Cornell	Bioactive Small Molecules: High-throughput screening assays, Chemical probe development, Rational drug design, Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, Mass spectrometry, Chemical Cell Biology: Chemical genetics, Proteomics, Biotechnology: Protein engineering	Cancer, Neuroscience	Physiological and pathological roles of ubiquitin-dependent protein destruction
Samuel Danishefsky, PhD*Professor Emeritus Member, National Academy of Sciences Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences	Sloan Kettering	Bioactive Small Molecules: Chemical methodology, Total synthesis, Biotechnology: Protein engineering	Cancer, Immunology, Microbiology	Syntheses of antitumor and anti-infective natural products
Dinshaw Patel, PhD*Professor Emeritus Member, National Academy of Sciences Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences	Sloan Kettering	Macromolecular Structure and Function: Enzymology, X-ray crystallography, NMR spectroscopy	Cancer, Microbiology	Structural biology of nucleic acids and nucleic acid binding proteins

*This faculty member is no longer accepting new graduate students.