University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: November 16, 2006

Name: Rajinder P.S. Bajwa
School: Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Department: Pediatrics
Academic Title: Assistant Professor
Academic Degrees: M.B.B.S., Punjabi University, Patiala, India; M.D., Punjab University, Chandigarh, India; M.R.C.P. (U.K.), Royal College of Physicians of U.K.
Areas of Special Interest: Pediatrics BMT
I am Sikh by religion and am easily identifiable by my turban.

Name: Dario Brancato
School: College of Arts and Sciences
Department: Romance Languages and Literatures
Academic Title: Assistant Professor
Academic Degrees: Laurea in Lettere, University of Messina, Italy; M.A. and Ph.D., University of Toronto
Areas of Special Interest: Medieval and Renaissance Italian literature; Italian linguistics
The humanities are endemically affected by a shortage of funds. Many research projects, especially those entailing trips abroad, are very difficult to obtain sufficient funding. In the specific case of the program in Italian, the Italian section at UB has struggled to fill the courses, mainly because it needed more professors. My colleagues and I are working to make the program more varied and to offer new courses in language, literature and culture in the next years.

Name: Arnd Pralle
School: College of Arts and Sciences
Department: Physics
Academic Title: Assistant Professor, adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Biophysics and Physiology in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Academic Degrees: Ph.D., University of Munich and European Cell Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany
Areas of Special Interest: Biological physics, protein dynamics
One focus in my research is how proteins function as the nanomachinery of life. Especially for the large group of proteins embedded in the membrane—and important for cell-cell communication—it's slowly being recognized that their function is influenced by their environment. So my lab is using optical methods and materials from nanotechnology to study how membrane proteins function, move and change their shape, and the role of membrane environment. We also are expanding our work to complex systems of many proteins and studying how their interaction sets up spatial structures using optical methods and computer simulation.

Name: Jihnhee Yu
School: Public Health and Health Professions
Department: Biostatistics
Academic Title: Assistant Professor
Academic Degrees: Ph.D., Texas A&M University
Areas of Special Interest: Clinical trials, stochastic processes
My current project involves developing exact methods using the concept of bivariate binomial distribution, which can be useful for small clinical trials. I'm also looking into the possibility of using this method as an alternative for the bioequivalence tests, where the tests often define a "significant difference" arbitrarily.