BACKGROUND

EDUCATION

  • B.Sci. 1975, Chemistry, Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA

  • M.Sci. 1978; Ph.D. 1980, Physical Chemistry, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

RESEARCH AREAS

Structural Biology and Structural Chemistry, Structure-based Drug Discovery, Crystallography, Kinetics, Enzymology, Computation, Automation, Genomics, Sequence Analysis, Biomass Energy Production

STRUCTURAL GENOMICS

I was Project Manager for construction of beam line 5.0.3 at the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (ALS/LBNL); BL5.0.3 was the first robotic synchrotron endstation for sample manipulation and protein data collection. Concurrently, I was Project Manager at LBNL for the use of nanoliter drop technology for protein crystallization. I moved to the Novartis Institute for Functional Genomics to establish Structural Genomics as the basis for drug discovery using high-throughput methods in genomics, proteomics, crystallomics, and structure solution. I co-founded Syrrx, a structure-based drug design company founded with this technology, and it was sold to Takeda Pharmaceuticals in 2007 for $280M.

SERVICE

I have served as Treasurer and Local Meeting Chair (twice) of the American Crystallographic Association (ACA), member of the U.S. National Committee for Crystallography, and liaison for the ACA to the American Institute of Physics for the Underrepresented Minorities Committee. I was Co-Editor of Acta Crystallographica for 9 years and served on the Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Natural Products for several years. At UIC, I have served as a mentor in the Underrepresented Faculty Mentoring Program, Provost's Diversity Advisory Committee, Co-Chair of the Chancellor's Committee on the Status of LGBTQ+ Issues (twice), and Co-Chair of the Health Sciences Diversity Leadership Council.

PATENTS

  • Integrated crystal mounting and alignment system for high-throughput biological crystallography, No. 7274769, Sep 25, 2007.

  • Automated method for setting up multiple crystallization experiments in submicroliter volumes, No. 7015041, Mar 21, 2006.

  • Method for performing submicroliter crystallization experiments with high experiment to experiment precision, No. 7001438, Feb 21, 2006.

  • Method for performing high density submicroliter crystallization experiments, No. 6951575, Oct 4, 2005.

  • Method for performing submicroliter crystallization experiments, No. 6932845, Aug 23, 2005.

  • Integrated crystal mounting and alignment system for high-throughput biological crystallography, No. 6918698, Jul 19, 2005.

  • Method for diffracting crystals formed by submicroliter crystallization experiments, No. 6911056, Jun 28, 2005.

  • Method for screening microcrystallizations for crystal formation, No. 6630006, Oct 7, 2003.

  • Methods and apparatus for performing array microcrystallizations, No. 6296673, Oct 2, 2001.