Applied Crystallography

Biography

Associate Professor Joseph Orgel is a British American Scientist based at the Illinois Institute of Technology with past and present appointments in Biology, Physics and Biomedical Engineering and Applied Health Sciences at UIC as visiting faculty. His research interests are concerned with fundamental structural biochemistry problems that have direct links to the understanding and treatment of disease. Using unique techniques developed by Orgel, his group has been able to visualize the molecular organization of connective and neurological tissues to a resolution of less then one billionth of a meter. Joseph Orgel leads investigations of brain pathological diseases such as Alzheimers and Traumatic Brain Injury in collaboration with the US Army and connective tissue conditions including heart disease and arthritis, at the National Institutes of Health Biotechnology Research Resource, BioCAT, as Associate Director. An awardee of the United States National Science Foundation's CAREER award, he has been Biochemistry Section Editor of the Public Library of Science Journal, PloS ONE since 2008 and joined the board of directors of the National Museum of Health and Medicine (Chicago) in December of 2012.

Research Interest

Extracellular matrix biology and collagen structure, protein structure, macromolecular and fiber crystallography The Orgel lab specializes in research into the extra-cellular matrix (ECM) function and organization at the molecular level, amyloid structure and polymerization and membrane proteins. It is a multi-disciplinary team composed of undergraduates, postgraduates, postdocs and the PI using a variety of biochemical, biophysical and computational techniques that include (but are not limited to) X-ray fiber diffraction, single crystal crystallography, micro-diffraction, circular dichroism, electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, molecular modeling, bioinformatics peptide synthesis and fibril polymerization and association studies.