Dr. Suzanne Williams

Professor & Department Head
Office: 3301 New Science Facility
Phone: (906) 227-1068
E-mail: swilliam@nmu.edu

Research Interests:

I am really interested in cell surface receptor proteins.  My favorite receptor protein is the low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP).  LRP is an exciting protein to study because no one really knows why it exists in our bodies.   Some of the clues we have about possible functions are LRP helps cells take up circulating lipids, it is involved in the production of "foam cells" (precursors of cells that become arterial plaques), and it is found in the plaques that are abundant in brains of people with Alzheimer's disease.  I would love to know the end of the story about LRP; why do we have it and what is its main purpose in our bodies?  Is it helping or hindering the body's repair process in Alzheimer's disease?  To get at these questions I have begun  establishing a C. elegans model system in which these receptors can be studied.   C. elegans is a primitive worm and it contains the worm version of some of the human receptors. 

I am also interested in the physical nature of the binding between receptors and their ligands. I am using biocalorimetry to look at how  ligands bind to receptors.  These studies may eventually lead to ideas about drug candidates for these receptors.

Personal

I enjoy outdoor activities: cycling, hiking, bird watching, and sea kayaking, and indoor activities: reading and logic puzzles. Before coming to NMU I worked at the American Red Cross Research Laboratory in Rockville, Maryland, just north of Washington, D.C.  I earned my PhD in Biochemistry at University of Maryland and my BS in Chemistry at Michigan Tech University.

During the 2001-2002 academic year I was on sabbatical at the Biology Department of Johns Hopkins University.  There I spent 10 months learning biocalorimetry using an HIV-1 enzyme as a test protein.  We compared binding of drugs to the normal HIV enzyme and to several mutant forms of this enzyme.