Mark Bowen was born in Duluth, Minn, on the North Coast of the United States. He obtained a B.A. degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. After graduation, Bowen worked in the chemical industry and in home health care. He obtained a Ph.D. degree in biochemistry from the University of Illinois under the mentorship of Dr. Peter G. W. Gettins. After receiving his doctorate in 1998, Bowen took a Howard Hughes Medical Institute postdoctoral position at Yale University at the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry with Dr. Axel Brunger working on membrane protein structure and function. Bowen next moved with the Brunger Lab to Stanford University and joined the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. At Stanford, he worked with Dr. Steven Chu on single-molecule approaches to understanding the molecular mechanism of synaptic transmission. Bowen is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at Stony Brook University Medical Center. The Bowen Lab investigates the molecular underpinnings of synaptic transmission and aims to understand how nature harnesses the flexibility of protein disorder to achieve the nuanced regulation of neuronal signaling. Bowen’s areas of expertise include single-molecule fluorescence, FRET, protein structural biology, membrane fusion, scaffold proteins, intrinsic disorder, and excitatory neurotransmitter signaling.
Biography Updated on 5 September 2011