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Hausinger Lab Members

Postdoctoral Researchers
	Scott Mulrooney received his Ph.D. from MSU in 1990 and then worked as a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at the University of Michigan, where his research focused on structure/function studies of flavin-containing enzymes, until returning to MSU in 1999. While most of his time is devoted to teaching and duties as the MMG Director of Undergraduate Studies, he has a 25% research component in the Hausinger lab. Recent work has included metal binding studies on the UreE metallochaperone involved in urease activation, and characterizing the DNA-binding and enzymatic properties of the AidB protein.
	Piotr Grzyska received an M.S. (1998) in chemical engineering from Silesian Technical University (Gliwice, Poland) and a Ph.D. (2003) in organic chemistry from Utah State University (Logan, UT). He has worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Dr. Hausinger since 2003 and jointly with Dr. Proshlyakov since 2005, and recently (2007) was promoted to Research Assistant Professor in BMB. His research interests focus on biophysical analysis of his favorite protein, TauD, including use of spectroscopic techniques in the Chemistry Laser Lab.
	Tina Mueller received an M.S. in Environmental Sciences (1999) and a Ph.D. in Microbiology (2004), both at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland where she studied the degradation of phenoxypropionate herbicides. She extended this interest in new directions (generating homology models and carrying out mutagenesis studies to understand the basis of substrate enantiospecificity) after joining the Hausinger lab as a postdoc in 2004. In addition, she assisted with biochemical characterization of TauD and XanA. Now as a Research Assistant Professor in MMG, she focuses on understanding the function of the human AlkB homologue 1.
	Hajime Masukawa received his Ph.D. (2003) from Waseda University (Japan) where he worked on hydrogenase and photobiological hydrogen production in nitrogen-fixing heterocystous cyanobacteria. He continued that same research theme as a Research Fellow at Kanagawa University (2004-2008), and brought the project with him to MSU in 2008 as part of the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
	William Kittleman received a Ph.D. (2006) in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin where he studied an unusual flavoenzyme involved in isoprenoid biosynthesis. After holding a visiting assistant professor position at Albion College (2005-2006) he carried out postdoctoral research in DNA repair at the University of Michigan Medical School (2007) and in the area of enzymatic biosensors at Michigan State University (2008). His current work focuses on inhibitor and spectroscopic studies used to better understand the catalytic mechanism of XanA.
	Lee Macomber received his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2009) while studying the mechanism of copper toxicity in Escherichia coli. He joined the Hausinger lab in 2009. His research interests include characterizing the physiological metal-cofactor of Bacillus subtilis urease.
Graduate Assistants
	Jana Simmons, a BMB graduate student, received a B.S. in Biochemistry from Alma College in 2004. She studies both the mechanism by which Trypanosoma brucei hydroxylates the C-7 position of thymidine bases at specific sites in their DNA, the first step in forming the novel J base, and the AlkB homologue of this protist.
	Eric Carter, an MMG graduate student, received his B.S. in Biomedical Science from Western Michigan University in 2005. After graduation Eric worked as a research technician at Midwestern University (Downers Grove, IL) before joining MMG as a graduate student in 2007. His area of research focuses on the involvement of UreD in the urease activation process and characterization of a nickel-independent urease.
	Nicholas Flugga is an MMG graduate student. His undergraduate education at the University of Findlay concentrated on Biology, Ecology, and Chemistry. Currently his research focuses on testing the hypothesis that the main domain of UreB shifts by a hinge-like motion to allow access to the nascent active site during urease activation.
	Jodi Boer is a BMB graduate student who received her undergraduate education at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI). Jodi is carrying out structural and biochemical studies of two urease accessory proteins, UreF and UreG, required for activation of this nickel-containing enzyme.
Undergraduate Students
	Aaron Chester is a Math undergraduate student working with Piotr and Dr. Proshlyakov on methods to minimize noise problems in data obtained during continuous-flow resonance Raman studies.
	Rachel Morr is an MMG BS/MS student working with Eric on characterization of the interaction between UreE and UreG along with analysis of nickel binding to UreD.
	Megan Andrzejak is an MMG undergraduate (Genomics and Molecular Genetics) who helps Tina with studies involving human AlkB homologue 1.
	Brittnie DeVries is an undergraduate student in Medical Technology/Clinical Laboratory Sciences who helps with Jodi with UreG studies.
	Michael Howard is an undergraduate student in Biochemistry who assists Scott in his research.
	Christopher Towns is an undergraduate student in Microbiology who helps with general laboratory cleanup and assists Nicholas with his research.

Previous Hausinger Lab Members

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