Dr. Susan Spiller is an Associate Professor of Biology at Mills College, a small undergraduate Women's College in Oakland, California.  Her area of study includes Biophotonics Research into phytochromes which are classified as photosensitive proteins that were first discovered in plants, but exist in a myriad of organisms from fungi to cyanobacteria.     

Dr. Spiller is an affiliate of CBST and her research project evaluating the genomic DNA of photosynthetic prokaryotic microbes living in hot springs is a collaborative project with Dr. Lagarias from the UC Davis, Department of Biochemistry.  Dr. Spiller has also mentored more than 29 Mills Biophotonics Researchers, several of which are nearing completion of their medical training and others are in graduate programs. 

To read more about Dr. Spiller, please click on  http://www.mills.edu/academics/faculty/bio/spiller/spiller.php. 
  
Recent Publications:

Biochemistry 2008, 47, 7304-7316.  A Second Conserved GAF Domain Cysteine is Required for the Blue/Green Photoreversibility of Cyanobacteriochrome Tlr0924 from Thermosynechococcus elongatus.  Nathan C. Rockwell, Stephanie Lane Njuguna, Laurel Roberts, Elenor Castillo, Victoria L. Parson, Sunshine Dwojak, J. Clark Lagarias, Susan C. Spiller.

Additional research & outside interests:

Dr. Spiller collaborates with Sean Tamarisk and the CBST Education group to support teaching in the physiology class at East Oakland School of the Arts, a Castlemont Small High School.  She is a member of the CA Native Plant Society scholariship committee.  Outside of the classroom and research lab, Dr. Spiller enjoys hiking with her husband in the Sierra of CA, traveling to visit her three daughters, and spending time with her family and pets.