Biography

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Dr. Rosen is the Chair of the Department of Biophysics at UT Southwestern Medical Center and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.  Dr. Rosen received undergraduate degrees in chemistry and in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1987.  He then spent a year in Alan Battersby’s lab in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge as a Winston Churchill Foundation Scholar.  He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University in 1993 under the direction of Stuart Schreiber, where he studied the structure and function of the FK506 binding protein, FKBP12.  He was a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell post-doctoral fellow in the laboratories of Tony Pawson and Lewis Kay at the University of Toronto, where he studied regulation of the signaling adaptor protein, Crk, and developed methods of selective methyl group labeling of proteins for NMR spectroscopy.  Dr. Rosen started his independent laboratory in 1996 in the Cellular Biochemistry and Biophysics Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and moved to UTSW in 2001. 

The Rosen lab seeks to understand the formation, regulation and functions of enigmatic, cellular compartments termed biomolecular condensates.  These evolutionarily conserved structures concentrate diverse but specific groups of molecules without a surrounding membrane.  Condensates appear to form through the physical process of liquid-liquid phase separation.  Using a range of techniques, including biochemical reconstitution and in vitro and cellular microsopies, we investigate phase separation in both engineered and natural condensates.  The former, in their simplified nature, enable precise isolation of key molecular parameters governing condensate behaviors, revealing general principles. The latter allow demonstration of these principles in more complex natural biochemical and cellular systems.  Ultimately, we seek to understand cell organization on scales spanning nanometers to microns.

The Rosen lab website can be found at:  www.utsouthwestern.edu/labs/rosen/

 

Education

Undergraduate
University of Michigan-Ann Arb (1987), Chemistry
Undergraduate
University of Michigan-Ann Arb (1987), Chemical Engineering
Graduate School
Harvard University (1993), Organic Chemistry

Research Interest

  • biochemistry
  • Biological phase separation
  • cell biology of the actin cytoskeleton
  • polymer physics/chemistry
  • structural biology

Publications

Featured Publications LegendFeatured Publications

Advanced Surface Passivation for High-Sensitivity Studies of Biomolecular Condensates.
Yao RW, Rosen MK, bioRxiv 2024 Feb
Surface Charge Can Modulate Phase Separation of Multidomain Proteins.
Kim J, Qin S, Zhou HX, Rosen MK, J Am Chem Soc 2024 Jan

Honors & Awards

  • Election to National Academy of Sciences
    (2020)
  • Wiley Prize
    (2020)
  • Allen Distinguished Investigator, a program funded through The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group
    (2018-2021)
  • Emil Kaiser Award, Protein Society
    (2018)
  • Mar Nell and F. Andrew Bell Distinguished Chair in Biochemistry
    (2009)
  • Carolyn R. Bacon Professorship in Medical Science and Education
    (2006)
  • Edith & Peter O’Donnell Award from the Texas Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science
    (2006)
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
    (2005)
  • Boyer Award, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
    (2001)
  • Sidney Kimmel Scholar Award
    (1998)
  • Beckman Young Investigator
    (1997)
  • Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)
    (1997)
  • Winston Churchill Scholar
    (1987)