Michael A. Marletta, Ph.D.

CH and Annie Li Chair in the Molecular Biology of Diseases, and
Professor of Chemistry, Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Education:
A.B. (1973) – State University of New York, Fredonia - Biology and Chemistry
Ph.D. (1979) – University of California, San Francisco
Postdoctoral Training Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Bio:

Michael Marletta, Ph.D., returned to the University of California, Berkeley in 2015 and was appointed to the CH and Annie Li Chair in Molecular Biology of Diseases, and as professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology. Previously he held appointments at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI), MIT, the University of Michigan, and UC Berkeley, where he served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2005-2010. 

Named an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2007, other awards he has received include the MacArthur Fellowship awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (1995); election to the National Academy of Medicine (1999); election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001); and fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2006 and in 2016 to the American Philosophical Society. 

Dr. Marletta is a member of the American Chemical Society and American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He has served as Senior Editor for eLife and the Editorial Board of PNAS. He is a consultant for a number of pharmaceutical companies and serves on the scientific advisory boards of others. He is a co-founder of Omniox, Inc. and is a member of the Fredonia College Foundation Board of Directors. 

His primary research interests lie at the interface of chemistry and biology with emphasis on the study of protein function and enzyme reaction mechanisms. He has made fundamental discoveries concerning the biological action of nitric oxide (NO). His studies have provided the basis for a molecular level understanding of this unique cell signaling pathway and the function of nitric oxide in the immune system. His lab is also involved in the characterization of a novel oxidative pathway of cellulose degradation with application to biofuel production and, in some fungi, a role in developmental biology and in others, pathogenesis.