Jeff Vieregg
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
University of Chicago
GCIS W508A
929 E 57th St
Chicago, IL 60637 USA
I am a staff scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. I did my graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley in the labs of Ignacio Tinoco, Jr. and Carlos Bustamante, then a postdoc at Caltech in Niles Pierce's lab.
My research interests revolve around the question of how the sequence of a biomolecule (protein or nucleic acid) encodes its structure, function, interactions, and fate. In addition to being fascinating physical systems, RNA, DNA, and proteins play many vital roles in building and maintaining life, from information transfer to regulation of gene expression to catalysis of chemical reactions. Learning how they function (and malfunction) is essential for understanding how cells work and may provide new ways to intervene when things go wrong.
Biophysics and biochemistry are complex topics that requires techniques from a variety of disciplines to be applied at many scales. I've gotten the chance to use tools from fields ranging from non-equilibrium statistical physics and optical trapping through organic chemistry to human tissue culture and studied systems as small as single molecules and as large as whole vertebrate embryos. It's been tremendous fun (and very hard work), and I'm grateful to the amazing people I've met along the way.
Please follow the links on this page if you'd like to learn more about my research interests and background.