We believe that structural biology and biochemistry provide uniquely powerful insights into the mechanisms used by proteins to sense and respond to changes in the environment around them.  From these, we learn how nature works, how diseases are caused, and how we might use this information for new therapeutic and biotech applications.

I’m proud that the lab has put these ideas into practice in twenty-plus years of operation at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center and UT Southwestern Medical Center with:

• excellent scientists who are really good people and diverse in gender, career paths, backgrounds, and interests
• a healthy sense of lab community
• a shared interest in using different scientific approaches, learning some of these ourselves and doing others in collaborations with friends and experts elsewhere
• excitement that our work has led to potential therapeutics (HIF-2α inhibitors for cancer) and biotech applications (EL222-driven optogenetic gene control) via new companies
• a commitment “do the right experiment, in the right way, to answer the right question” then professionally communicate our work to each other and to scientists around us via our words and actions
• a serious view of our roles as both learners – there’s always more to learn – and teachers to other people in academics or the general public
• and finally, a strong sense of gratitude that we are privileged to be able to conduct top-level research with support from public and private sources, along with hard work by many people who support us

KG – 3/2021