Rou-Jia Sung

Education & Professional History

University of California-Berkeley, BA; Harvard University, MA; PhD

I am an assistant professor in the Biology department at Carleton College. My research interests center on understanding how structure informs function — how does thinking about the shape of something inform our understanding of how it works?

In the lab, we use tools from biochemistry, structural biology, molecular biology, and cell biology to investigate the role of the ly6 protein family in regulating the function of neuronally important receptors and proteins. In the classroom, we are interested in developing new molecular visualization tools to facilitate the incorporation of 3D models for the teaching of molecular structure and function.

Studying ly6 protein function

Tools for molecular visualization

Lab Members

Lab News

BIOL 380: Biochemistry

Biochemistry is an examination of the molecular basis of life processes. The course provides an in depth investigation of metabolic pathways, their interrelationships and regulation, protein structure and function with special emphasis on enzymes. Other topics include the techniques of protein analysis and how they are employed to examine problems of fundamental biochemical importance. This course meets the requirement for the Biochemistry concentration.

Prerequisites: Biology 125 and 126 and Chemistry 233 and 234 and concurrent registration in BIOL 381 for 18/FA. 19/WI offering does not require concurrent BIOL 381 registration.

BIOL 381: Biochemistry Laboratory (link to Biology courses page)

Syllabus for course (PDF)

Syllabus for lab (PDF)

BIOL 372: Seminar: Structural Biology

The ability to visualize macromolecules at atomic detail has significantly advanced our understanding of macromolecular structure and function. This course will provide an overview of fundamental experimental methodologies underlying structure determination, followed by primary literature-based discussions in which students will present and critically discuss classic foundational papers as well as examples from the current literature that have advanced our understanding of macromolecule structure and function.

Prerequisites: Biology 125 and 126; and either Biology 280, Biology 380 or Chemistry 320

6 credit; Does not fulfill a curricular exploration requirement, Quantitative Reasoning Encounter

Syllabus for course (PDF)

BIOL 126: Energy Flow in Biological Systems and Lab

Follow the pathways through which energy and matter are acquired, stored, and utilized within cells, organisms, and ecosystems. The focus moves among the different levels of organization from protein function to nutrient movement through ecosystems.

Prerequisites: Chemistry 123 or 128

6 credit; Science with Lab, Quantitative Reasoning Encounter

Sung RJ, Swarat S, Lo SM: Doing coursework without doing biology: Students’ non-conceptual strategies to problem solving in biology. Journal of Biological Education, 2020, DOI: 10.1080/00219266.2020.1785925.

Sung RJ, Wilson AT, Lo SM, Crowl LM^‡, Nardi J^‡, St. Clair K, Liu JM: BiochemAR—an Augmented Reality Educational Tool for Teaching Macromolecular Structure and Function. J. Chem. Ed., 2019, Article ASAP, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00691.

Puddifoot C*, Wu M*, Sung RJ, Joiner W: Ly6h regulates trafficking of alpha7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and nicotine-induced potentiation of glutamatergic signaling. J. Neurosci., 2015, 35(8): 3420-3430.

Sung RJ*, Zhang M*^‡, Qi Y, Verdine GL: Structural characterization of residues involved in lesion recognition by MutM. J. Biol. Chem., 2013, 288(14): 10012-10023.

Sung RJ, Zhang M^‡, Qi Y, Verdine GL: Sequence-dependent structural variation in DNA undergoing intrahelical inspection by MutM. J. Biol. Chem., 2012, 287(22):18044-54.

Qi Y, Nam K, Spong MC, Banerjee A, Sung RJ, Zhang M^‡, Karplus M, Verdine GL: Strandwise translocation of a DNA glycosylase on undamaged DNA. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 2012, 109(4):1086-1091.

Prober DA, Rihel J, Onah A, Sung RJ, Schier A: Hypocretin/Orexin overexpression generates a zebrafish genetic model of insomnia. J. Neurosci., 2006, 26(51):13400-10.

Rosenberg O, Deindl S, Sung RJ, Nairn A, Kuriyan J: Crystal structure of the auto-inhibited kinase domain of Ca2+/Calmodulin-dependent kinase II and SAXS analysis of holoenzyme assembly. Cell, 2005, 123(5):849-60.

Garmy-Susini B, Jin H, Zhu Y, Sung RJ, Hwang R, Varner J: Integrin a4b1-VCAM-1-mediated adhesion between endothelial and mural cells is required for blood vessel maturation. Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2005, 115(6):1542-1551.

*These authors contributed equally to this work.

^‡Undergraduate student researcher.