James Marks
Research Assistant Professor
James began his research career as an undergraduate in the laboratory of Prof. Kyung-Bo Kim at the University of Kentucky, where he received his bachelor’s in biology. He then joined the laboratory of Prof. Alexander Mankin and Prof. Nora Vázquez-Laslop, where he studied the mechanisms of protein synthesis inhibitors on bacterial translation. His research determined the mechanisms of translation inhibition by two antibiotics: chloramphenicol and linezolid. During this time, his long-term collaboration with Prof. Meydan began when they utilized retapamulin-assisted ribosome profiling to identify dozens of novel translation initiation events in E. coli. James then joined Dr. Markus Hafner at the National Institute of Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, and Skin Diseases as a post-doctoral fellow. During this time his research interests expanded to studying the mechanisms of mitochondrial translation. James is excited to join the Meydan lab where he will study how ribosome collisions affect cellular and human health while also pursuing his own research interests in the field of mitochondrial translation. While not in the lab. James loves to brew beer, bake bread, and play a game of Dungeons and Dragons with friends.