The Mrksich Group

At the Interface of Organic Chemistry, Materials Science, and Biology

Welcome Grace McLaughlin!

The Mrksich Group is excited to welcome new Chemistry graduate student, Grace McLaughlin! Grace holds a M.S. in Chemistry from University of Massachusetts Lowell and will be giving effort toward the lab's Megamolecules work.

Welcome Grace Watkins!

The Mrksich Group is excited to welcome our new Chemistry graduate student, Grace Watkins! Grace holds a B.S. in both biochemistry and Biology from the University of Northwestern - St. Paul will be giving effort toward the lab's Megamolecules work.

Justin Modica to Present at the Cell & Developmental Biology Trainee Seminar Series

Justin will be giving his talk entitled “Structure Function Relationships in Antibody Internalization and T-cell Redirecting Therapies” on November 29th, 2023 at the Cell & Developmental Biology Department’s Trainee Seminar Series in the Simpson Querrey Biomedical...

Julian Robles Gives Talk at the SYNBREU Symposium

Undergraduate Julian Robles participated in the SYNBREU Symposium on Friday, August 18th by giving his talk entitled "Genetic Incorporation of p-azidophenylalanine into Cutinase Enabling Bioorthogonal Labeling at Three Sites".  Congratulations on completing your...

Milan Endows Summer Research Program at the University of Illinois

Milan enables research in the field of Chemistry by endowing a summer research program at the University of Illinois. Read more on his efforts here.

About Our Group

Mrksich Group Holiday Party 2023

The Mrksich Group uses the tools of organic chemistry, materials science and biochemistry to address important challenges in and at the intersection of chemistry and biology.

In one program, we emphasize the development of methods to perform high throughput experiments by combining engineered surfaces and mass spectrometry in a technique known as SAMDI-MS. This method has been used extensively to profile enzymatic activity both in situ and in complex lysates while permitting the analysis of tens of thousands of experiments in a day. We have also pioneered the development of Megamolecules – a new way to engineer protein-based molecules with much greater control over their structure and complexity than with traditional techniques. With this approach, we can build structures composed of more than twenty protein domains, with branched, cyclic and dendritic architectures, and with molecular weights in excess of a million Daltons, for a broad range of basic and applied applications.

Research

Surface Chemistry, High-Throughput Experiments, and Protein Engineering

High-Throughput Experiments

Our group utilizes the inert, ordered structure of self-assembled monolayers with MALDI-MS (SAMDI) to profile biological and chemical reactions in a label-free, high-throughput manner.

Megamolecules

Our group developed a platform for assembling large (~MDa), modular, homogeneous protein structures for therapuetic and diagnostic use. 

Surface Chemistry and Cellular Control

Our group uses microcontact printing, dynamic photoactivation, and other methods to engineer substrates that control cellular adhesion and behavior.

Group Meetings

Group meetings are held in Tech B484. We invite first-year graduate students to attend group meetings. Please email mrksich-ofc@northwestern.edu with any questions.

  1. 03/12 5:00 PM  Milan
  2. 04/03 5:00 PM  Justin
  3. 04/22 5:00 PM  Sraeyes
  4. 05/06 5:00 PM  Guru
  5. 05/20 5:00 PM  Tori
  6. 06/03 5:00 PM  Bethel
  7. 06/17 5:00 PM  Zhaoyi
  8. 07/01 5:00 PM  Xandra
  9. 07/15 5:00 PM  Rahul

Subgroup Meetings

Subgroup meetings. also held in Tech B484, invite project-based discussions and collaboration. 

  • 02/29 1:00 Pm  Megamolecule
    02/29 2:30 PM  SAMDI
  • 03/13 2:00 PM  Megamolecule
    03/13 3:30 PM  SAMDI
  • 04/02 2:00 PM  Megamolecule
    04/02 3:30 PM  SAMDI
  • 04/23 1:30 PM  Megamolecule
    04/23 3:00 PM  SAMDI
  • 05/07 2:00 PM  Megamolecule
    05/07 3:30 PM  SAMDI

Funding Acknowledgements

Interested in Joining or Have Questions?