Hegg Lab Members
Principal Investigator |
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Eric Hegg  |
I obtained my B.A. from Kalamazoo College and my Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin under the direction of Professor Judith Burstyn. It was during my time at Wisconsin that I became interested in metalloenzymology, studying the role of metal ions in enzymes that hydrolyze DNA, RNA, and proteins. After receiving my Ph.D., I joined Larry Que's group at the University of Minnesota as an NIH postdoctoral fellow where I studied non-heme iron dioxygenases and established my long-standing interest in understanding how nature synthesizes and activates small molecules such as H2 and O2. Following my postdoctoral work, my family and I moved to Salt Lake City where I joined the faculty of the University of Utah and began my independent research career. When the opportunity arose, my wife and I eagerly returned to the northern Midwest to join the faculty at MSU. In addition to studying heme biosynthesis and O2 utilization, I am involved in developing renewable bioenergy, using phototrophic microbes to generate H2 from sunlight and water.
E-mail:EricHegg@msu.edu |
Research Associates |
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Vaidyanathan Mathrubootham (“VAIDY”) received his PhD in 2000 from Bharathidasan University, India and moved to Drexel University, Philadelphia as an instructor/postdoc fellow where he enjoyed teaching undergraduates. In 2003 he moved to the University of Utah to work with Dr. Eric L. Hegg. Vaidy moved along with Dr. Hegg when the lab shifted to MSU in 2006. Vaidy has been involved in making synthetic and catalytic models for the nickel-containing enzymes CODH/ACS and Ni-SOD. E-mail:vaidymm@msu.edu |
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Shipra Gupta is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Hegg lab. She joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in April, 2007. Dr. Gupta is working on the characterization of heme A synthase and its reaction mechanism. Prior to joining Dr. Hegg’s lab, she did her first postdoctoral research at the International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) from March 2006 to February 2007, Delhi (India). At ICGEB, she worked on CBL and CIPK, genes responsible for abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Shipra received her Master’s (2001) and Ph.D. (2006) from the Department of Environmental Biology, University of Delhi, India. For her doctoral research work, she raised antibiotic marker-free codA transgencis of Brassica juncea cv. Varuna with improved antibiotic stress tolerance. She enjoys her research and looks at each experiment as a beginning of a new day. E-mail:sgupta79@msu.edu |
Graduate Assistants | |
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Zhihong Wang, a senior graduate student, joined Professor Hegg’s lab in 2003, at which time the lab was located in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah. In 2006, she accompanied Professor Hegg to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Michigan State University to continue her Ph.D. study.
Her research mainly covers the following three projects: (1) investigating the role of the modifications on heme A utilizing a variety of thermodynamic data; (2) demonstrating the heme flux through the heme A synthase biosynthetic pathway by identifying key protein-protein interaction; (3) understanding the regulation mechanism of heme O synthase and heme A synthase in S. cerevisiae by quantifying both the gene expression and the protein expression.
One of her tips to survive a Ph.D. project: DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM ONE SINGLE EXPERIMENT. E-mail:wangzhih@msu.edu |
Technicians |
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Yuxin Wang is a technician and joined the Hegg lab in August of 2007. She received her B.S. in Biochemistry and M.S. in Genetics in China. Her work in the lab is studying heme biosynthesis, transport, and regulation. E-mail:wangyuxin_dd@hotmail.com |
Undergraduate Students | |
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Yiwei Ma is an undergraduate student majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology. She has been in Hegg lab since her sophomore year and is working with Dr. Shipra Gupta on the overexpression and purification of heme A synthase. Yiwei likes learning new things while staying with old friends. She is as interested in social science and literature as in biochemistry. E-mail:mayiwei@msu.edu |
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Jason Thomas is a physiology major and he is working with Vaidy on synthetic modeling of nickel-containing enzymes, CODH/ACS and Ni-SOD. Jason is part of the Professorial Assistantship program at Michigan State University. He joined the Hegg lab in the Fall of 2007, and he plans on continuing with this lab until he graduates. Jason likes to play sports and stay active. He also enjoys hanging out with friends. E-mail:thoma615@msu.edu |
Volunteers |
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Aparajita Banerjee is a visiting graduate student from the MSU Department of Chemistry, where she is currently finishing her M.S. degree. In the Hegg lab she is working on the elucidation of the structure of the linker present in the active site of [FeFe]-hydrogenase expressed in E. Coli from C. reinhardtii. She obtained her M.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2005, and she completed her bachelor’s degree at Presidency College, Calcutta in 2003. E-mail:banerj12@msu.edu |
Combining work and fun |
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