The following is an alphabetical list of active MCB faculty members and brief descriptions of their research. Additional faculty lists are available using the links below.

Emeriti and Professors of the Graduate School | Secondary Divisional Affiliates

Click on a faculty member's name to see a complete description of their research (if available). Alternatively, use the search form below to search the faculty research interest pages for keywords.

Diana Bautista
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Molecular mechanisms of transduction in touch and pain receptors

Eric Betzig
Howard Hughes Investigator and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Development of new tools for imaging and image analysis to enable biological discovery

David Bilder
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Genetics of cell and tissue architecture

Gloria Brar
Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Regulation of meiotic translation, the roles of pervasive short translation products, and the co-option of stress responses for cellular differentiation through meiosis

Abby Dernburg
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Chromosome organization and dynamics during meiosis

David G. Drubin
Department Co-Chair and Ernette Comby Chair in Microbiology Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Actin and microtubule cytoskeletons in yeast and mammalian cells

Gary Firestone
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Molecular endocrinology; tumor biology

Daniel A. Fletcher
Professor (Affiliated) of Cell and Developmental Biology
Mechanics and dynamics of cell movements on the purified protein, single cell, and tissue levels

Iswar Hariharan
Department Co-Chair and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Mechanisms of control of growth and cell proliferation. Regulation of regenerative growth.

Lin He
Associate Professor and Thomas and Stacey Siebel Distinguished Chair in Stem Cell Research Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
microRNA functions in cancer development, mouse tumor models

Rebecca Heald
Flora Lamson Hewlett Chair and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Mitotic spindle assembly and function in Xenopus laevis

Dirk Hockemeyer
Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Telomere biology of human stem cells

Gary Karpen
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Chromosome structure and function

Arash Komeili
Professor (Affiliated) of Cell and Developmental Biology
Assembly and Subcellular Organization of Bacterial Organelles

Samantha Lewis
Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Mitochondrial biology; mitochondrial genome integrity in health and disease

Polina Lishko
Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Cell biology of mammalian fertilization

Ellen Lumpkin
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology

Kunxin Luo
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Signal transduction pathways mediated by receptors and the mechanisms controlling the activity of the receptor kinases

James Olzmann
Associate Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Regulation of cellular lipid homeostasis: lipid droplets, lipotoxicity, and ferroptosis

Michael Rape
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Protein ubiquitination, degradation and the control of cell division and differentiation

Randy Schekman
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Organelle assembly; protein transport

Ian Swinburne
Assistant Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Multi-scale mechanisms of organ form and function

Denis Titov
Assistant Professor (Affiliated) of Cell and Developmental Biology
Metabolism and mechanisms of aging

Srigokul Upadhyayula (Gokul)
Assistant Professor in Residence of Cell and Developmental Biology
Multifunctional adaptive optical microscopy; 3D subcellular dynamics; computational tools for tera- to petabyte-scale projects.

David Weisblat
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Developmental biology

Matthew Welch
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology
Cytoskeletal function in cell migration, membrane trafficking and microbial pathogenesis

Emeriti and Professors of the Graduate School

Beth Burnside
Professor Emerita of Cell and Developmental Biology
Cell biology of the photoreceptor cytoskeleton

W. Zacheus Cande
Professor Emeritus of Cell and Developmental Biology
Cell and developmental biology

John Gerhart
Professor of the Graduate School Division of Cell and Developmental Biology
Developmental biology

Terry Machen
Professor of the Graduate School Division of Cell and Developmental Biology
Epithelial transport; cellular and membrane physiology

G. Steven Martin
Professor Emeritus of Cell and Developmental Biology
Cell biology; tumor virology

Howard Mel
Professor Emeritus of Cell and Developmental Biology

Fred Wilt
Professor of the Graduate School Division of Cell and Developmental Biology
Molecular embryology; cell biology

Secondary Divisional Affiliates

The following faculty have a secondary affiliation with the Cell & Developmental Biology division.

Georjana Barnes
Judy Chandler Webb Endowed Chair and Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development
Microtubule cytoskeleton and cell cycle controls

Greg Barton
Class of ’36 Endowed Chair and Professor of Immunology and Pathogenesis
Innate immune system

Jeffery Cox
C.H. Li Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Endocrinology, Professor of Immunology and Pathogenesis
Molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis and immune evasion in mycobacteria

Michel DuPage
Assistant Professor of Immunology and Pathogenesis
Epigenetic control of the functional plasticity of T cells in disease

James Hurley
Judy C. Webb Chair and Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology
Structural membrane biology

Nicole King
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development
Choanoflagellates, animal origins, and the evolution of host-microbe interactions

Doug Koshland
Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Chair in the Biological Sciences & Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development
Mechanisms and principles that mediate desiccation tolerance and the structure, integrity, and evolution of chromosomes

Eva Nogales
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology
Structure-function of macromolecular assemblies: cytoskeleton self-assembly and nucleic acid transactions

Ellen Robey
Professor of Immunology and Pathogenesis
Fate determination in the T-lymphocyte lineage

Jeremy Thorner
Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology
Signal transduction mechanisms; biochemistry; molecular genetics; cell biology

Elçin Ünal
Associate Professor of Genetics, Genomics and Development
Molecular basis of cellular rejuvenation, gene regulation during cellular differentiation

Roberto Zoncu
Associate Professor of Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology
How organelles sense nutrients and regulate cellular growth

Lecturers

Georg Schwarzer
Lecturer