Rie Takahashi graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics. Her research interests are in cancer biology, in particular, the biochemical effects of stress on angiogenesis and tumor metastases. She has looked at the effects of norepinephrine on IL6 and VEGF gene regulation in order to show an underlying molecular basis for chronic stress and its potentially detrimental effects on the health of cancer patients. Rie has studied piano since the age of 9 and has continued her musical pursuits throughout her undergraduate career. She began working on the conversion of protein sequences into music with Jeffrey H. Miller in 2005 and would like to see the interdisciplinary project help scientists as well as the general public. 

gene2music(at)gmail.com

Jeffrey H. Miller is a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics within the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, and also part of the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA. His research focuses on mechanisms of DNA repair and mutagenesis, and mutation avoidance pathways. His research group uses microorganisms to discover repair and mutation avoidance pathways, and then attempt to find counterparts in higher cells, including humans.  The long term goals include understanding human disease and cancer that arises from disruption of DNA repair or activation of mutational pathways.

Jeffrey H. Miller, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics/UCLA
1602 Molecular Sciences Bldg.
405 Hilgard Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1489
310-825-8460 (office phone)
310-825-8924 (lab phone)
310-206-3088 (fax)
jhmiller(at)microbio.ucla.edu

Frank Pettit got his B.S. at Cornell and his Ph.D. at UCLA, both in physics. He then switched into molecular biology, and specifically does computational/theoretical research on the structure-function relationship of proteins. He is the author of the program, HotPatch, that predicts the locations of functional sites on protein structures. He is also the creator of the SFR Database of protein structure-function relationships. Current projects include more accurate methods to predict protein function from structure. He is also interested in rational drug design.