Kuriyan Lab: Post-Doctoral Research

University of California, Berkeley

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

Department of Chemistry

Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Post-doctoral researchers in the lab come from a variety of backgrounds, but share a common interest in working out molecular mechanisms in terms of three-dimensional structure. Some post-doctoral researchers in the lab come with a background in X-ray crystallography, whereas others have backgrounds in areas such as protein folding, NMR, cell biology, biophysics or computational biology.

Former post-doctoral fellows now hold faculty positions at various academic institutions, such as Gabriel Waksman at the University of London, Jennifer Martin at The University of Queensland, Jonathan Goldberg at Sloan-Kettering Institute, Frank Sicheri at The University of Toronto and Elena Conti at The Max Planck Institute. Former lab members also work in the pharmaceutical industry, such as Maria Arigiadi and Eric Goedken at Abbott, Stephen Soisson at Merck, Ann Boriack-Sjodin at Astra-Zeneca and Steven Kazmirski at Pfizer.

Our lab is part of BSMB (Biomolecular Structure and Mechanism at Berkeley)

Our lab is located on the 5th floor in Stanley Hall, pictured above.

Current Research Projects

Post-doctoral Fellows in the lab have done graduate research in various areas of biochemistry, biophysics or cell biology working on problems such as protein folding, structural biology, cell biological approaches to signaling.

Current Post-Doctoral Fellows in the Lab

Nick Endres

B.S. Physics UC San Diego (1995)

Ph.D. Biophysics UC San Francisco (2006)

Thesis research with Dr. Ron Vale on the mechanism of motility of the minus-end directed protein Ncd.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fellow (2007-2010)

Currently interested in the structural mechanism for the regulation of proteins in the EGFR/Sos/Ras signaling pathway.

Planning on using fluorescent techniques to measure the conformation and kinetics of signaling proteins in vivo, and in vitro systems where proteins are recruited to artificial lipid vesicles or bilayers.

Natalia Jura

M.Sc. Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (2001)

Ph.D. Stony Brook University, NY (2006)
Advisor: Dr. Dafna Bar-Sagi. Thesis: "Molecular characterization and functional consequences of Ras signaling".

I am interested in the mechanisms by which signaling pathways become deregulated in disease. My current studies focus on the protein kinases and in particular the structural basis for the regulation of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) kinase, whose abnormal activity is a critical driving component of many human malignancies.

Brian Kelch

B.S., Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, Pennsylvania State University (1999)

Ph.D. Biochemistry, University of California, San Francisco, (2007)
Thesis Research with David Agard on the structural determinants of kinetic stability

My research is focused on understanding the mechanism of clamp loading using a variety of biophysical techniques, including single-molecule fluorescence.

Meindert Lamers

M.S. University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (1996)

Ph.D. Netherlands Cancer Institute, The Netherlands (2003)

Jane Coffin Childs Fellow, 2004-2007

I am working on bacterial DNA replication. We have recently solved the crystal structure of the replicative DNA polymerase, Pol III, and have now shifted our focus to the interactions between Pol III and the other subunits of the replication machinery.

Sonja Lorenz

Diploma in Biochemistry, University of Regensburg, Germany (2003):
“Multinuclear NMR Studies on the Biomineralization of Diatoms”
Advisor: Prof. Eike Brunner

PhD, University of Oxford, UK (2008):
“Structural Studies on the Paxillin Interaction Network”
Advisors: Prof. Iain Campbell and Prof. Martin Noble

I have just arrived in Berkeley and will probably work on Abl kinase among other things.

Debora Makino

B.S. Physics, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Carlos, Brazil (1997)

M.S. Physics, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Carlos, Brazil (2000)

Ph.D. Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine (2005)
Thesis research with Dr. Alexander McPherson on virus crystallography.

My research is in the area of DNA replication and is focused on understanding the mechanism of clamp deposition around primer- template DNA by a clamp loader complex, member of the AAA+ superfamily of ATPases.

Markus Seeliger, Ph D

Diploma, University of Hanover, Germany (1999)

PhD, Cambridge University, UK (2003)
Folding, Dynamics and Function of the Cks1 complex adaptor protein

Principle Investigator NIH (K99 - Bridges to Independence) "Conformational Dynamics of Protein Tyrosine Kinases Src and Abl"

I am studying the protein dynamics underlying function and regulation of the c-Abl and c-Src protein tyrosine kinases. I have developed a bacterial expression system for the Abl and Src family protein kinases and have characterized the differential sensitivities of these kinases to the cancer drug imatinib through structural and biophysical methods. I am currently working on the NMR assignments of Src kinase domain for studies of solution dynamics.

Jonathan Winger

B.A., St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN (1995)

Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (2004)
Advisor: Dr. Michael Marletta. Thesis: "Activation and deactivation of soluble guanylate cyclase: domain organization and the requirement for non- heme equivalents of nitric oxide"

American Heart Association Fellow (2006-2009)

Currently, I'm using biochemical and biophysical techniques to study the structural mechanisms by which a family of signaling proteins, the guanylate cyclases, are allosterically regulated.