Gloria Borgstahl

Biography

  Professor, Eppley Institute Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Research Interest

 Dr. Borgstahl has been primarily interested in the structural biology of macromolecules essential to life. Survival and normal growth of cells rely on the basic processes of cell motility, protection against oxidative damage, and DNA metabolism. The entire genome must be replicated reliably every cell cycle and any defect must be corrected.  Borgstahl performs basic research on the protein-DNA and protein-protein interactions that govern DNA metabolic processes.  Specific current studies include examination of the effects of posttranslational modification on protein-protein protein-DNA complexes, their binding and DNA repair activity. The laboratory is also using high throughput screening techniques to find small molecule inhibitors as a potential breast, ovarian and pancreatic cancer treatments.  A second focus is on neutron crystallography of MnSOD which is a NASA project involving crystal growth at the International Space Station.  Another project includes innovative research in cellular motility that will provide new tools to macromolecular crystallographers for structure determination from modulated crystals employing the four-dimensional superspace approach, and will also provide unique structural information for the actin filament.