John F. Rakus

Dr. Rakus graduated from the University of Richmond in 2004 with a B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology while minoring in Biology and Greek. He then studied the evolution of enzymatic functions in the enolase superfamily under the tutelage of Dr. John Gerlt in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received his Ph.D. in 2009 and then joined Dr. Lara Mahal's group in the Department of Chemistry at New York University with a focus on the regulation of mammalian glycosylation pathways. After spending a year as a Visiting Instructor of Biochemistry at Fort Lewis College, Dr. Rakus joined the faculty at Marshall as an Assistant Professor in 2013.
At Marshall, he teach Principles of Chemistry I (CHM 211) and Introductory Biochemistry (CHM 365).He is interested in glycosylation, which is the addition of carbohydrate molecules, post-translationally, to proteins. His focus is on understanding how mammalian cells form the C2-mannosyltryptophan modification, and what role this modification has in cellular interactions.