Karen Thickman received her PhD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Molecular Biophysics. There she studied the structure of spliceosomal proteins and the thermodynamics of protein-protein interactions involved in recruiting the spliceosome to the pre-mRNA. During her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh, she studied the biochemical properties and DNA structure specificity of a gram-positive bacterial helicase, PcrA. Dr. Thickman’s teaching focuses on laboratory courses in computational biology and biological sciences. Her interests include automation of biology, protein interaction studies, and teaching laboratory and research skills.

Karen is also interested in science policy and has been an active member of the Biophysical Society’s Public Affairs committee since 2006.