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Michael J. Rust

TitleProfessor
InstitutionUniversity of Chicago
DepartmentMolecular Genetics and Cell Biology
AddressChicago IL 60637
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    Bacteria are an ancient form of life that occupies almost every conceivable niche, from pathogenesis to commensal existence with an animal host to primary production in oceans and lake. Despite their apparent simplicity, bacteria possess sophisticated biochemical networks that dynamically store information about the size and status of the cell and conditions in the external environment. These biochemical systems allow precise decision making that allow microbes to thrive in challenging conditions. Our lab is interested in the design principles of these reaction networks. We use a multidisciplinary approach: biochemical reconstitution of the underlying interactions, single cell microscopy to study function, and mathematical modeling to rebuild systems in silico. A major focus area is bacterial circadian rhythms, which allow single cells to predict the time of day.
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    2014 - 2018Pew Scholar

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    Collapse selected publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.
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    PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Köbler C, Schmelling NM, Wiegard A, Pawlowski A, Pattanayak GK, Spät P, Scheurer NM, Sebastian KN, Stirba FP, Berwanger LC, Kolkhof P, Macek B, Rust MJ, Axmann IM, Wilde A. Two KaiABC systems control circadian oscillations in one cyanobacterium. Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 03; 15(1):7674. PMID: 39227593; PMCID: PMC11372060.
      Citations:    
    2. Leech G, Melcher L, Chiu M, Nugent M, Burton L, Kang J, Kim SJ, Roy S, Ross JL, Das M, Rust MJ, Robertson-Anderson RM, Farhadi L. Timed material self-assembly controlled by circadian clock proteins. ArXiv. 2024 Mar 21. PMID: 36911279; PMCID: PMC10002811.
      Citations:    
    3. Han X, Zhang D, Hong L, Yu D, Wu Z, Yang T, Rust M, Tu Y, Ouyang Q. Determining subunit-subunit interaction from statistics of cryo-EM images: observation of nearest-neighbor coupling in a circadian clock protein complex. Nat Commun. 2023 09 22; 14(1):5907. PMID: 37737245; PMCID: PMC10516925.
      Citations: 3     Fields:    
    4. Kim SJ, Chi C, Pattanayak G, Dinner AR, Rust MJ. KidA, a multi-PAS domain protein, tunes the period of the cyanobacterial circadian oscillator. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 09 13; 119(37):e2202426119. PMID: 36067319; PMCID: PMC9478674.
      Citations: 2     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    5. Rust MJ. Biological rhythms: The suspended animation clock. Curr Biol. 2021 12 06; 31(23):R1532-R1534. PMID: 34875245.
      Citations:    Fields:    Translation:Cells
    6. Liao Y, Rust MJ. The circadian clock ensures successful DNA replication in cyanobacteria. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 05 18; 118(20). PMID: 33972427; PMCID: PMC8157973.
      Citations: 8     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    7. Murugan A, Husain K, Rust MJ, Hepler C, Bass J, Pietsch JMJ, Swain PS, Jena SG, Toettcher JE, Chakraborty AK, Sprenger KG, Wang S, Wood KB, Skanata A, Kussell E, Ranganathan R, Shih HY, Goldenfeld N, Mora T, Walczak AM, Rivoire O. Roadmap on biology in time varying environments. Phys Biol. 2021 05 17; 18(4). PMID: 33477124; PMCID: PMC8652373.
      Citations: 10     Fields:    
    8. Pattanayak GK, Liao Y, Wallace EWJ, Budnik B, Drummond DA, Rust MJ. Daily Cycles of Reversible Protein Condensation in Cyanobacteria. Cell Rep. 2020 08 18; 32(7):108032. PMID: 32814039; PMCID: PMC10005845.
      Citations: 17     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    9. Hong L, Lavrentovich DO, Chavan A, Leypunskiy E, Li E, Matthews C, LiWang A, Rust MJ, Dinner AR. Bayesian modeling reveals metabolite-dependent ultrasensitivity in the cyanobacterial circadian clock. Mol Syst Biol. 2020 06; 16(6):e9355. PMID: 32496641; PMCID: PMC7271899.
      Citations: 8     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    10. Husain K, Pittayakanchit W, Pattanayak G, Rust MJ, Murugan A. Kalman-like Self-Tuned Sensitivity in Biophysical Sensing. Cell Syst. 2019 Nov 27; 9(5):459-465.e6. PMID: 31563474; PMCID: PMC10170658.
      Citations: 6     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    11. Leypunskiy E, Kiciman E, Shah M, Walch OJ, Rzhetsky A, Dinner AR, Rust MJ. Geographically Resolved Rhythms in Twitter Use Reveal Social Pressures on Daily Activity Patterns. Curr Biol. 2018 12 03; 28(23):3763-3775.e5. PMID: 30449672; PMCID: PMC6590897.
      Citations: 9     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    12. Hong L, Vani BP, Thiede EH, Rust MJ, Dinner AR. Molecular dynamics simulations of nucleotide release from the circadian clock protein KaiC reveal atomic-resolution functional insights. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 12 04; 115(49):E11475-E11484. PMID: 30442665; PMCID: PMC6298084.
      Citations: 12     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    13. Liao Y, Rust MJ. The Min Oscillator Defines Sites of Asymmetric Cell Division in Cyanobacteria during Stress Recovery. Cell Syst. 2018 11 28; 7(5):471-481.e6. PMID: 30414921.
      Citations: 5     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    14. Chew J, Leypunskiy E, Lin J, Murugan A, Rust MJ. High protein copy number is required to suppress stochasticity in the cyanobacterial circadian clock. Nat Commun. 2018 08 01; 9(1):3004. PMID: 30068980; PMCID: PMC6070526.
      Citations: 15     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    15. Pittayakanchit W, Lu Z, Chew J, Rust MJ, Murugan A. Biophysical clocks face a trade-off between internal and external noise resistance. Elife. 2018 07 10; 7. PMID: 29988019; PMCID: PMC6059770.
      Citations: 14     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    16. Leypunskiy E, Lin J, Yoo H, Lee U, Dinner AR, Rust MJ. The cyanobacterial circadian clock follows midday in vivo and in vitro. Elife. 2017 07 07; 6. PMID: 28686160; PMCID: PMC5605227.
      Citations: 21     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    17. Jun S, Rust MJ. A Fundamental Unit of Cell Size in Bacteria. Trends Genet. 2017 07; 33(7):433-435. PMID: 28545962; PMCID: PMC5606328.
      Citations:    Fields:    Translation:Cells
    18. Lambert G, Chew J, Rust MJ. Costs of Clock-Environment Misalignment in Individual Cyanobacterial Cells. Biophys J. 2016 Aug 23; 111(4):883-891. PMID: 27558731; PMCID: PMC5002072.
      Citations: 17     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    19. Brown MS, Grubb J, Zhang A, Rust MJ, Bishop DK. Small Rad51 and Dmc1 Complexes Often Co-occupy Both Ends of a Meiotic DNA Double Strand Break. PLoS Genet. 2015 Dec; 11(12):e1005653. PMID: 26719980; PMCID: PMC4697796.
      Citations: 50     Fields:    Translation:AnimalsCells
    20. Pattanayak GK, Lambert G, Bernat K, Rust MJ. Controlling the Cyanobacterial Clock by Synthetically Rewiring Metabolism. Cell Rep. 2015 Dec 22; 13(11):2362-2367. PMID: 26686627; PMCID: PMC4691564.
      Citations: 27     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    21. Rust MJ. Computational Recipes in Enzymology. Cell Syst. 2015 Sep 23; 1(3):178-9. PMID: 27135910.
      Citations:    Fields:    
    22. Chang YG, Cohen SE, Phong C, Myers WK, Kim YI, Tseng R, Lin J, Zhang L, Boyd JS, Lee Y, Kang S, Lee D, Li S, Britt RD, Rust MJ, Golden SS, LiWang A. Circadian rhythms. A protein fold switch joins the circadian oscillator to clock output in cyanobacteria. Science. 2015 Jul 17; 349(6245):324-8. PMID: 26113641; PMCID: PMC4506712.
      Citations: 95     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    23. Lin J, Chew J, Chockanathan U, Rust MJ. Mixtures of opposing phosphorylations within hexamers precisely time feedback in the cyanobacterial circadian clock. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Sep 16; 111(37):E3937-45. PMID: 25197081; PMCID: PMC4169968.
      Citations: 27     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    24. Pattanayak GK, Phong C, Rust MJ. Rhythms in energy storage control the ability of the cyanobacterial circadian clock to reset. Curr Biol. 2014 Aug 18; 24(16):1934-8. PMID: 25127221; PMCID: PMC4477845.
      Citations: 43     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    25. Pattanayak G, Rust MJ. The cyanobacterial clock and metabolism. Curr Opin Microbiol. 2014 Apr; 18:90-5. PMID: 24667330; PMCID: PMC4068238.
      Citations: 11     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    26. Phong C, Markson JS, Wilhoite CM, Rust MJ. Robust and tunable circadian rhythms from differentially sensitive catalytic domains. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jan 15; 110(3):1124-9. PMID: 23277568; PMCID: PMC3549141.
      Citations: 59     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    27. Rust MJ. Orderly wheels of the cyanobacterial clock. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Oct 16; 109(42):16760-1. PMID: 23045681; PMCID: PMC3479490.
      Citations: 3     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    28. Rust MJ, Golden SS, O'Shea EK. Light-driven changes in energy metabolism directly entrain the cyanobacterial circadian oscillator. Science. 2011 Jan 14; 331(6014):220-3. PMID: 21233390; PMCID: PMC3309039.
      Citations: 120     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    29. Rust MJ, Markson JS, Lane WS, Fisher DS, O'Shea EK. Ordered phosphorylation governs oscillation of a three-protein circadian clock. Science. 2007 Nov 02; 318(5851):809-12. PMID: 17916691; PMCID: PMC2427396.
      Citations: 181     Fields:    Translation:Cells
    30. Brandenburg B, Lee LY, Lakadamyali M, Rust MJ, Zhuang X, Hogle JM. Imaging poliovirus entry in live cells. PLoS Biol. 2007 Jul; 5(7):e183. PMID: 17622193; PMCID: PMC1914398.
      Citations: 154     Fields:    Translation:HumansCells
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