History

History

The Department of Biochemistry began in 1918 with the recruitment of Alfred W. Homberger who served as Chairman of Physiological Chemistry and Chemistry. In 1942 he moved his office to the Medical school to devote his full-time efforts to the dental and medical teaching program, where he remained until his retirement in 1951. Dr. and Mrs. Homberger each established endowments to support graduate student education in the department.  In 1952, John F. Taylor became chair and published extensively in the area of hemoglobin structure and function. In addition, he is credited with the first successful crystallization of the enzyme, aldolase. In 1972, Dr. Taylor stepped down as Chairman of the Department and Dr. Robert McGeachin was appointed as Acting Chairman. Dr. McGeachin was a master educator, teaching carbohydrate metabolism to medical and graduate students. He introduced students to the biochemical basis of diabetes mellitus and received the Golden Apple Award, awarded annually by the medical students to the master educator of the year. He was fondly known as Dr. Sweets by the medical students. In 1976, Dr. James L. Wittliff from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Rochester was named Chairman and brought a large research group focused on the characterization of the receptors for steroid hormones and their regulation during oncogenesis. In 1986, Dr. Russell A. Prough, from the Department of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas, accepted the chairmanship, His research focused on the mechanism of action and regulation of cytochrome P-450 and other drug metabolizing enzymes. In February 2003, Dr. Kenneth S. Ramos was named Chairman. His research interests center on gene-environment interactions in human health. Dr. Ramos stepped down as Chair to pursue additional opportunities in the School of Medicine and Dr. Prough was appointed as Acting Chair until April 2009, when the current chair, Dr. Ronald Gregg, PhD was appointed as Chairman. 

Important dates:

  • 1918: Founding of Department of Physiological Chemistry by Alfred W. Homberger

     

Faculty Recruitment History

  • 1952: John F. Taylor
    • Richard Hardin
    • Howard Ganther
    • Bruce Anderson
    • John Brown
  • 1972: Robert McGeachin (Acting Chair)
  • 1976: James Wittliff
    • William Dean, PhD; 1979-2015
    • Richard Feldhoff, PhD; 1978-2018
  • 1983:  John W. Brown (Acting Chair)
    • Thomas Geoghegan, PhD; 1984-2014
  • 1986: Russel Prough
    • Barbara Clark, PhD; 1995-present
    • Jaydev Dholakia, PhD; 1991-2019
    • Steven Ellis, PhD; 1987-present
    • Pamela Feldhoff, PhD; 1997-2018
    • Ronald Gregg, PhD; 1997-present
    • Carolyn Klinge, PhD; 1996-present
    • Nancy Martin, PhD; 1987-2011
    • Eugenia Wang, PhD; 2000-2019
  • 2003: Kenneth Ramos, PhD
    • Chuan Hu, PhD; 2007-2013
    • Theodore Kalbfleisch, PhD; 2007-2018
    • Yong Li, PhD; 2004-2015
    • David Samuelson, PhD; 2007-present
    • Christine Schaner-Tooley, PhD; 2011-2016
    • Vilius Strabinskis, PhD; 1996-2013
  • 2009: Ronald Gregg, PhD
    • Alan Cheng, PhD; 2010-2021
    • Marsha Cole, PhD; 2011-present
    • Ben Lovely, PhD; 2017-present
    • Britany Rife-Magalis, PhD: 2024-present
    • Andrew Patterson, PhD; 2024-present 
    • Melissa Smith, PhD; 2020-present
    • Corey Watson, PhD; 2016-present
    • Mei Zhang, PhD; 2010-2015