Course Tutors
Katherine Kantardjieff is Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at CSU Fullerton, where she conceived, established and directs the Keck Center for Molecular Structure, a research and training laboratory in X-ray diffraction analysis, molecular modeling and simulation, and a core facility for the California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology. Her research interests are in protein structure and function, biophysics, structural biology, crystallography, structural genomics, computational biochemistry, and structure-guided drug design. Kantardjieff developed the University Bioinformatics Certificate Program, and is currently working with other CSU faculty and the biotechnology industrial sector to develop a new professional Masters degree. She is also leading a system-wide research computing grid project. Kantardjieff has been honored by CSUF four times in the last 10 years for her scholarly and creative activity, and she is currently Vice Chair of the United State National Committee for Crystallography (NAS/NRC).
Bernhard Rupp has held post doctoral and research scientist positions in the USA, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Israel, where he has acquired a broad background in instrumentation, crystallography, and structural chemistry and biology. In 1992 he founded the Macromolecular Crystallography and Structural Genomics group of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, CA, and established the high throughput crystallization facility of the TB Structural Consortium, one of the nine PSI-1 Protein Structure Initiatives. Dr Rupp is an experienced instructor, well known for his dynamic workshops, crystallization courses, and interactive web tutorials (http://ruppweb.dyndns.org). He is presently adjunct Professor for Molecular Structural Biology at the University of Vienna, Austria, and at the University of California, Irvine.
Dr Rupp’s research interests include high throughput crystallography, technology development, structure guided drug design, and structural bioinformatics. In addition to technology development and discovery driven research, he has worked on neurotoxins, superantigens, and mycobacterium tuberculosis drug target structures. He is presently developing next-generation crystal harvesting robotics with a private company and working in drug discovery.