About the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Meet the chair, faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and staff who drive discovery and education in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, strengthening research and training at MUSC.

Philip H. Howe, Ph.D.

Chair, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Philip H. Howe, Ph.D., joined the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) as the Hans & Helen Koebig Chair of Clinical Oncology in 2011, and now serves as chair of the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology. Dr. Howe earned his Bachelor of Arts from Augusta University and his Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry from the Medical College of Georgia. After completing his postdoctoral training in Cell Biology at Vanderbilt University, he was a faculty member at Case Western University and the Cleveland Clinic before moving his lab to MUSC. Dr. Howe’s NIH and DOD funded research lab focuses on the role of transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) in cellular models of differentiation and cancer.

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Our Faculty

Our faculty bring deep expertise and a commitment to discovery that shapes breakthrough research and supports the growth of future scientists. Their drive to advance knowledge strengthens every part of our department.

Faculty Member	Lab Website
Thibaut 'Tim' Barnoud, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: The role of p53 variants in cancer risk and response to therapy; targeting heat shock proteins for the treatment of cancer.
Annamarie C. Dalton, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Molecular mechanisms of epithelial to mesenchymal transition effectors in cell-based and murine models of metastatic breast cancer and breast cancer recurrence in conjunction with Dr. Philip Howe.
Joseph Delaney, Ph.D. Associate Professor Focus: Biogenesis and pathology of copy-number alterations in cancer, particularly serous ovarian cancer.	View Delaney Lab
Raymond N. Dubois, M.D., Ph.D. Professor Focus: The molecular, genetic, and cellular basis for colorectal cancer.
Vamsi K. Gangaraju, Ph.D. Associate Professor Focus: Epigenetic regulation by Piwi-piRNA pathway; biogenesis and biological functions of piRNAs; environmental epigenetics; drosophila models of human diseases.
Saverio Gentile, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Lu Han, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Epithelial-mesenchymal tissue interactions during pancreatic homeostasis and tumorigenesis.	View Han Lab
Jessica H. Hartman, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Individual differences in metabolism arising from genetic factors (e.g. xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes) and lifestyle factors (exercise and diet) that impact response to environmental exposures, especially mitochondrial function/dysfunction and ER stress.	View Hartman Lab
Aaron Hobbs, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Judit Jimenez Sainz, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Study of DNA repair proteins and the alterations of their variants.	View Jimenez Sainz Lab
David T. Long, Ph.D. Professor Focus: The mechanistic role of BRCA1 in DNA repair and cancer predisposition.	View Long Lab
Lalima K. Madan, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Protein-Phosphorylation based signaling	View Madan Lab
John P. O'Bryan, Ph.D. Professor Focus: Pathways regulating cell growth, development, differentiation and proliferation in response to growth factor receptor signaling.	View O'Bryan Lab
Besim Ogretmen, Ph.D. Professor Focus: Roles of sphingolipid metabolism in cancer pathogenesis, chemotherapy-induced cell death, and drug resistance.
Michael C. Ostrowski, Ph.D. Professor Focus: Interactions between signaling pathways in cancer cell progression and normal cellular differentiation.
Jian Ouyang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: RNA-mediated genome maintenance and the transcriptional stress-induced genomic instability in normal and cancer cells, and targeting the underlying molecular mechanisms to develop novel cancer therapies.
Ozgur Sahin, Ph.D. Professor Focus: Mechanisms of cancer therapeutics, drug resistance and metastasis; drug discovery; systems biomedicine.	View Sahin Lab
Natalie Saini, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Determining the causes underlying genome instability in healthy humans, diseases with increased DNA damage and in cancers.	View Saini Lab
Judit J. Sainz, Ph.D. Assistant Professor
Russell Spencer-Smith, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Uncovering new vulnerabilities in the RAS-MAPK pathway through the study of rare disease-associated mutations.	View Spencer-Smith Lab
Daniel Sprague, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Neglected tropical diseases, cancer, and pain and depression. Utilizing techniques from various disciplines including synthetic and medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, and cell biology, we are interested in uncovering mechanisms of biased signaling in GPCRs and other receptors, studying epigenetic processes in both humans and parasites, and developing new ligands in un(der)drugged signaling pathways.	View Sprague Lab
Jennifer Stancill, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Determining the mechanisms by which pancreatic beta-cells protect themselves from reactive oxygen species and inflammation and how these mechanisms can be leveraged to prevent or treat diabetes.	View Stancill Lab
Timothy L. Stemmler, Ph.D. Professor
Christina Voekel-Johnson, Ph.D. Associate Professor Focus: Cell death, sphingolipids, oxidative stress, gene delivery.	View Voelkel-Johnson Lab
Noel A. Warfel, Ph.D. Associate Professor Focus: Understanding the biological mechanisms that allow cancer cells to thrive in hypoxia (low oxygen), with a focus on understanding how changing oxygen levels impacts tumor invasion and drug resistance.
Huimin Zhang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Focus: Molecular mechanisms underlying genomic instability and developing strategies to exploit these mechanisms for cancer therapy.

Research Faculty

Aiping Bai, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor

Bo Cen, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor

Breege V. Howley, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor

Patrick Nasarre, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor

Natalia V. Oleinik, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor

Sudarshana Sharma, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor

Zdzislaw Szulc, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor

Dingzhi Wang, Ph.D.
Research Professor

Jie Wei, MS
Research Associate Professor

Xingjun B. Wu, Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor

Emeritus Faculty

Erika Büllesbach, Ph.D.
Associate Professor Emeritus
Focus: Hormones of insulin-like structure; chemical syntheses and structure-function relations.

Julie Chao, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Focus: Serine proteinase structure-function relationship; purification, molecular cloning, expression, and function of proteinases and proteinase inhibitors; serpin regulation of gene expression

Daniel Fernandes, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Focus: Molecular mechanisms of drug-induced gene amplification. Interactions of anticancer drugs with nuclear matrix proteins, especially DNA topoisomerase II.

Paula Traktman Ph.D.
Hirschmann Endowed Professor Emeritus
Focus: Vaccinia virus genome replication and virion morphogenesis. The role(s) of the cellular VRK1 protein kinase and BANF1 protein in normal cell function and cancer.

Gregory W. Warr, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Focus: Information Theory and its constraints on discrete systems in biology.

Our Administrators

Our administrative team supports department operations with care and precision. They help create a strong environment for research, education, and collaboration across the department.

Name	Contact Information
Megan E. White Administrative Manager	843-792-4641 843-792-8304 (fax) edge@musc.edu
Jennifer Rumble Grants Administrator	843-792-3568 843-792-8304 (fax) rumblej@musc.edu
Kate Mackiewicz Administrative Coordinator to the Chair	843-792-9318 843-792-8304 (fax) mackiewi@musc.edu
Erika Jenkins Administrative Coordinator	843-792-8509 843-792-8304 (fax) jenkinse@musc.edu
Shirley Toelle Fiscal Technician II	843-792-5895 843-792-8304 (fax) toellesj@musc.edu

Contact Our Department

MSC 509
173 Ashley Ave, Rm 501
Charleston, SC 29425

Phone: 843-792-9318

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