Mike Diehl

Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles (2002)
Assistant Professor, Department of Bioengineering
Rice University

Research (Diehl Laboratory)
Dr. Diehl is an assistant professor in the Departments of Bioengineering and Chemistry at Rice University. His research focuses on understanding the cooperative dynamics of proteins and how they operate as highly organized and integrated assemblies. Dr. Diehl and his team are developing engineering approaches that enable model systems of natural multi-protein assemblies to be reconstructed in vitro while preserving the intricate molecular features of these assemblies. They are also developing instrumentation that will allow them to investigate the collective protein dynamics of these systems with single-molecule precision. The synthetic techniques employed in their research provide acute control over the supramolecular architecture of an assembly, which allows the molecular orchestration of interacting proteins to be sensitively proved. Currently, these tools are being used to develop mechanistic pictures of intracellular trafficking and transport by motor proteins. However, these techniques have general utility for investigating a host of problems that involve multiple interacting proteins. Dr. Diehl was a Beckman Senior Research Fellow (2002-2005) at the California Institute of Technology and named a recipient of the Rice University Hamill Research Innovation Award (2006).

Education and experience
Dr. Diehl received his doctorate in Physical Chemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles working in the areas of nanotechnology and molecular electronics. In 2002, he began a Beckman Senior Research Fellowship in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology. Under the direction of David Tirrell, Dr. Diehl constructed an independently funded research program at the Nano/Bio interface.