Lee Makowski

About

Lee Makowski received his B.S. at Brown University in Physics, and Masters and Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering. After doing postdoctoral research at Brandeis University in Structural Biology, he joined faculty of the College of Physician and Surgeons at Columbia University in the Biochemistry Department. He moved to Boston University as Professor of Physics and later accepted a position as Director of the Institute of Molecular Biophysics at Florida State University. In 1998 he joined the National Science Foundation where he was a Program Director first in the Biology Directorate and then in the Division of Materials Science. From 2000 until 2010 he was at Argonne National Laboratory, first as Biosciences Division Director and then as Senior Scientist. He moved to Northeastern in the fall of 2010. He is an author of over 100 scientific research papers and numerous review articles on innovative analyses of biophysical data with focus on x-ray and neutron scattering and x-ray imaging.

Selected Publications

• Nepal, P.,  Bashit, A.A., L. Yang   and L. Makowski (2022). Small-angle x-ray microdiffraction from fibrils embedded in tissue thin sections. (submitted for publication).
• Bashit, A.A., P. Nepal, T. Connors, D.H. Oakley, B.T. Hyman,L.Yang and L. Makowski (2022) Mapping the spatial distribution of fibrillar polymorphs in human brain tissue. Frontiers in Neuroscience (in press).
• Liu, J. and L. Makowski (2022) Scanning x-ray microdiffraction:  In situ molecular imaging of tissue and materials. Current Opinion in Structural Biology (in press).
• Djagbletey, R., Aniteye, E., Darkwa, E.O., Sarpong, P., Aryee, G., Ohene, B.E., Kpodonu, J., Makowski, L. and Smallwood, C.D. (2022) A Simplified Adult Expiratory Support Device: First Clinical Cases in a Low-Resource Setting. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, 113(3), pp.1021-1025.
• Hossain, M.A., Richa Sarin, Daniel P. Donnelly, Brandon C. Miller, Samantha Watson, Jenifer N. Winters, Jeremy B. Conway, Durgalakshmi Sivasankar, Aparna C. Ponmudiyan, Tanvi Gawde, Sunanda Kannapadi, Yunqiu Chen, Jared R. Auclair, Joseph P. Salisbury, Roman Manetsch, Mary Jo Ondrechen, Gregory A. Petsko, Lee Makowski and Jeffrey N. Agar (2022) Protein crosslinking as a therapeutic strategy for SOD1-related ALS BioRxiv.
• Billiar, K., Donald P. Gaver, Kenneth Barbee, Anita Singh, John D. DesJardins, Beth Pruitt, Joe Tranquillo, Glenn Gaudette, Beth Winkelstein, Lee Makowski, Jenny R. Amos, Ann Saterbak, Joe LeDoux, Brian Helmke, Michele Grimm, Paul Benkeser (2022) Learning Environments and Evidence-Based Practices in Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering. 10.1007/s43683-021-00062-z
• Packer, M.R. J.A. Parker, J.K. Chung, Z. Li, Y.K. Lee,  T. Cookis, H. Guterres, S. Alvarez,  M.A. Hossain, D.P. Donnelly, J.N. Agar, L. Makowski, M. Buck, J.T. Groves, and C. Mattos. (2021) Raf promotes dimerization of the Ras G-domain with increased allosteric connections. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118 (10).
• Makowski, Lee, Olson-Sidford, William, W. Weisel, John (2021). Biological and Clinical Consequences of Integrin Binding via a Rogue RGD Motif in the SARS CoV-2 Spike Protein. Viruses, 13(2),146. 10.3390/V13020146
• Huang, Lei, Wright, Michelle, Yang, Sichun, Blachowicz, Lydia, Makowski, Lee, Roux, Benoît (2020). Glycine substitution in SH3-SH2 connector of Hck tyrosine kinase causes population shift from assembled to disassembled state. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – General Subjects, 1864(7),129604. 10.1016/J.BBAGEN.2020.129604
• Makowski, Lee (2020). The Structural Basis of Amyloid Strains in Alzheimer’s Disease. ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering, 6(5),2498-2505. 10.1021/ACSBIOMATERIALS.9B01302
• Ngu, Lisa, Winters, Jenifer N., Makowski, Lee, Beuning, Penny J., Ondrechen, Mary Jo (2020). Distal Residues and Enzyme Activity: Implications for Personalized Medicine. Biophysical Journal, 118(3),535a-536a. 10.1016/J.BPJ.2019.11.2937
• Ngu, Lisa, Winters, Jenifer N., Nguyen, Kien, Ramos, Kevin E., DeLateur, Nicholas A., Makowski, Lee, Whitford, Paul C., Ondrechen, Mary Jo, Beuning, Penny J. (2020). Probing remote residues important for catalysis in Escherichia coli ornithine transcarbamoylase. PLoS ONE, 15(2),e0228487. 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0228487
• B. Roig-Solvas, D.H, Brooks, L. Makowski, FiXR: A Framework to Reconstruct Fiber Cross- Sections from X-Ray Fiber Diffraction Experiments, Acta Crystallographica, 2020, D76
• B. Roig-Solvas, B.T. Hyman, L. Makowski, In Situ Saxs of Protein Deposits in Alzheimer’s Disease, bioRxiv, 2019
• L. Makowski, The Structural Basis of Amyloid Strains in Alzheimer’s Disease, ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering, 2019
• H. Zhou, H. Guterres, C. Mattos, L. Makowski Predicting X‐Ray Solution Scattering from Flexible Macromolecules, Protein Science, 27, 2018, 2023-2036
• B. Roig-Solvas, L. Makowski, Calculation of the Cross-Sectional Shape of a Fibril from Equatorial Scattering, Journal of Structural Biology 200(3), 2017, 248-257

Faculty

Aug 06, 2024

Studying Proteins Involved in the Urea Cycle

BioE/COS Professor Lee Makowski, BioE Affiliate Faculty Penny Beuning, and Mary Jo Ondrechen had their research on “Revisiting the Roles of Catalytic Residues in Human Ornithine Transcarbamylase” published in Biochemistry.

Students

Apr 18, 2024

Bioengineering Students Receive Fulbright Scholarships

Bioengineering students Emin Abrahamian, E’24, Benjamin Field, E’24, and Matthew Hiller, E’24, received Fulbrights—scholarships that are awarded to exceptional students to research, study, or teach English abroad, and fosters diplomacy and mutual understanding between the U.S. and other countries.

Faculty

Feb 01, 2024

Celebrating Bioengineering at Northeastern: Visions for the Future

The Department of Bioengineering hosted a 10 year anniversary celebration to commemorate what the department has accomplished and showcase its plans for the future.

Student Groups

Jan 09, 2024

Creating an Engineering Club From an Idea

Isabela Castillo, E’25, bioengineering, came to Northeastern University with an idea to create prosthetic hands and led to her starting Give a Hand, a club developing low-cost, 3D-printed prosthetic hands.

In the Media

Oct 05, 2023

Global Warming: Act To Stop World Becoming Uninhabitable – Okyenhene Entreats World Leaders

Bioengineering Professor and Chair Lee Makowski was recently featured in the Ghanaian magazine Graphic Online, in an article titled “Global Warming: Act To Stop World Becoming Uninhabitable – Okyenhene Entreats World Leaders.” The article discusses the Okyanhene (the King of Akyem Abuakwa, from the Eastern Region of Ghana), Osaguefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin’s visit to Northeastern University […]

Faculty

Aug 22, 2023

$2.1M NIH Award for Understanding the Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Alzheimer’s Disease

BioE Chair and Professor Lee Makowski, in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital, received a $2.1M NIH for “Fibrillar Polymorphs in Human Brain Tissue.” The research will use x-ray scanning microscopy to observe changes in the molecular structure of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles during disease with the goal of better understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease.

In the Media

Dec 14, 2022

Doctors, Biomedical Engineers Assess Abuakwa South Health Delivery

BioE Chair Lee Makowski was featured in the BusinessGhana article “Doctors, Biomedical Engineers Assess Abuakwa South Health Delivery.” Related story: Ghana Biomedical Innovation Summit

Faculty

Dec 14, 2022

Ghana Biomedical Innovation Summit

The Department of Bioengineering in partnership with the non-profit 4GBI sponsored the Ghana Bioinnovation Workshop and the Ghana Bioinnovation Symposium. The two events attracted a total of over 300 attendees. Fact-finding visits of the Northeastern/4GBI team to rural health clinics, hospitals, and Academic City University College supplemented these events.

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