Department of Biological Sciences

Molecular and Cellular Biology Research

Welcome to the Molecular and Cellular Biology research cluster in the Department of Biological Sciences at Wright State University.  Our goal is to expose students to multidisciplinary training opportunities and provide broad exposure to fundamental molecular and cellular processes.  Our research laboratories focus on a wide variety of biological issues ranging from neuromuscular signaling and muscle function, respiratory physiology, avian population genomics, DNA forensics, the regulation of alternative splicing, the evolution of protein interactions, molecular mechanisms of viral infection, the molecular biology of complex genetic disease interactions and the molecular ecology of microbial communities.

Our research laboratories are training grounds for undergraduate students as well as graduate students from the Wright State Master of Science program in biological sciences, the Wright State biomedical sciences Ph.D. program, and the Wright State environmental sciences Ph.D. program. Principal Investigators and their trainees sustain research awards from funding agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation, as well as from private companies and research foundations.

Brief descriptions of molecular and cellular biology faculty research interests are listed below. For more thorough descriptions of research and training opportunities, please view the websites of individual faculty members.

Research Interests

Speciation genetics; morphological evolution; evolution of adaptive gene complexes
Scott Baird, Ph.D.

Structure/function of nuclear organelles; regulation of gene expression; genome integrity
Paula Bubulya, Ph.D.

Adenovirus biology; virus-cell interactions; cell surface receptors; gene therapy
Ola Kolawole, Ph.D.

Chemoreceptor sensing and neuronal response to changes in blood gases and pH
Lynn Hartzler, Ph.D.

Molecular evolution and genetic diversity; DNA bioinformatics; forensic DNA analysis
Dan Krane, Ph.D.

Evolution of populations/species; influence of natural selection on non-coding DNA
Jeffrey Peters, Ph.D.

Cytotoxicity of Lou Gehrig's disease proteins; Development of novel therapeutic approaches
Shulin Ju, Ph.D.

Interactome networks--evolutionary rewiring and perturbations in disease
Quan Zhong, Ph.D.

Cellular and molecular physiology of mammalian skeletal muscle and the neuromuscular junction
Andrew Voss, Ph.D.