The biological cell is, perhaps, the most impressive dissipative system found in nature. Operating far from equilibrium, the cell utilizes gradients in free energy to drive networks of chemical reactions that are staggeringly complex, yet tightly regulated in space and time. A detailed understanding of cellular function (and dysfunction) requires an understanding of the mechanisms by which individual reactions interact and organize themselves to sustain the higher-order biochemical processes (e.g. metabolism, cell division) that constitute cellular “life.” My group studies these mechanisms of interaction and organization (temporal and spatial) and uses them to interrogate, control, and rewire biochemical networks of relevance to human health, energy, and the environment.
My research program has three broad goals: (i) to develop physical and biochemical methods to study and control the activities of enzymes of metabolic relevance, (ii) to employ those methods to answer fundamental questions of cellular metabolism, human disease, and molecular recognition, and (iii) to apply those methods, and correspondingly evolved theories, to develop novel enzyme inhibitors and protein therapeutics, and to engineer biosynthetic pathways for the production of fuels and chemicals. My group employs concepts and techniques from physical chemistry, biochemistry, synthetic biology, optics, nanotechnology, and applied mathematics.
