The faculty and students of NYU Grossman School of Medicine’s Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics PhD Training Program have interests that include cellular transport, cell signaling, replication of nucleic acids, protein folding and design, and genetic and epigenetic control of gene expression. Their projects typically target key macromolecules and attempt to understand their mechanisms of action at the most fundamental level. Our faculty members come from five departments at NYU Langone as well as from NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science.

At the beginning of your first year, you select a faculty mentor, in consultation with your graduate advisor, who offers advice about courses, research rotations, and what to expect from graduate school. Learn more about planning for your dissertation. All requirements for working with your mentor and thesis committee are also listed on our student community thesis defense and graduation page, which you can access using your Kerberos ID.

The following faculty members provide supervision and guidance to students throughout their tenure in the program.

Signaling

William A. Coetzee, PhD
Professor, Departments of Pathology, Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, Neuroscience and Physiology, and Pediatrics
Research interests: ion channel biophysics in health and disease

Stefan Feske, MD
The Jeffrey Bergstein Professor of Medicine, Department of Pathology
Research interests: ionic signaling in immune cells

Michelle Krogsgaard, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology
Research interests: biophysics of T-cell activation

Tania Lupoli, PhD
Assistant Professor, NYU Department of Chemistry
Research interests: biochemical pathways involved in bacterial pathogenesis

Thomas Neubert, PhD
Professor, Department of Cell Biology
Research interests: post-translational modification in neurons

Michele Pagano, MD
The May Ellen and Gerald Jay Ritter Professor of Oncology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Chair, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: ubiquitin-mediated proteolysis

Cellular Transport

Gira Bhabha, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology
Research interests: molecular machines involved in transport and motility

Damian Ekiert, PhD
Assistant Professor, Departments of Cell Biology and Microbiology
Research interests: structure-driven approaches to tackle important problems in infectious disease

Glen Hocky, PhD
Assistant Professor, NYU Department of Chemistry
Research interests: computational study of mechanical force in protein assemblies

Liam J. Holt, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: the physical environment of cells

Xiangpeng Kong, PhD
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: membrane structure and DNA replication

David Stokes, PhD
Professor, Department of Cell Biology
Research interests: ion transport and cell–cell interactions

Nathaniel J. Traaseth, PhD
Assistant Professor, NYU Department of Chemistry
Research interests: multidrug transporters

Da-Neng Wang, PhD
Professor, Department of Cell Biology
Research interests: transmembrane nutrient transporters

Nucleic Acids

Karim-Jean Armache, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: structural basis of chromatin silencing

Robert Banh, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: regulatory mechanisms of mRNA translation

Joel Belasco, PhD
Professor, Department of Microbiology
Research interests: interactions between RNA and regulatory proteins

Timothee Lionnet, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Cell Biology
Research interests: imaging of transcription in living cells

Evgeny Nudler, PhD
The Julie Wilson Anderson Professor of Biochemistry, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: gene regulation and cellular stress

Eli Rothenberg, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: single molecule fluorescence of nucleoprotein complexes

Alexander Serganov, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: RNA riboswitches

Alexandra Zidovska, PhD
Assistant Professor, NYU Department of Physics
Research interests: biophysics of the genome

Modeling and Design

Paramjit Arora, PhD
Professor, NYU Department of Chemistry
Research interests: biomolecular recognition with helix mimetics

Jasna Brujic, PhD
Associate Professor, NYU Department of Physics
Research interests: mechanics of proteins

Timothy Cardozo, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: protein structure and protein design

David Fenyö, PhD
Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: modeling dynamics of cellular systems

Shohei Koide, PhD
Member of the Faculty, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: design and engineering of protein recognition interfaces

Marcus Noyes, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology
Research interests: protein engineering of protein domains and their interactions

Yingkai Zhang, PhD
Professor, NYU Department of Chemistry
Research interests: protein catalysis and recognition