Principal Investigator
Joshua S. Sharp, Ph.D.
Triplett-Behrakis Professor of Pharmacology
Affiliated Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
The University of Mississippi
School of Pharmacy
Department of BioMolecular Sciences
Contact: jsharp@olemiss.edu
662-915-1758
445 Faser Hall
Professor Sharp is a world renowned and internationally recognized expert in radical protein footprinting (RPF). He has published more than forty peer-reviewed articles in the field of RPF method development, fundamentals, and applications between 2002 and today. Professor Sharp published the first benchtop methods for HRPF, including the first method using UV photolysis of hydrogen peroxide for hydroxyl radical generation. With numerous invited lectures to both academia and private industry on the application of HRPF to biotherapeutics, Professor Sharp has addressed problems associated with formulation, biosimilarity, aggregation, and protein-protein and protein-ligand interaction mapping. Professor Sharp’s lab is also known for their work in carbohydrate structure-function analysis, and his team commonly leverages their expertise in both areas to study protein-carbohydrate complexes.
Professor Sharp received his PhD in 2003 from a joint program between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee, under the mentorship of Dr. Robert Hettich. He performed his postdoctoral studies at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in the Laboratory of Structural Biology, under the supervision of Dr. Kenneth Tomer. In 2007, he joined the University of Georgia’s Complex Carbohydrate Research Center as a research faculty member. Most recently, Professor Sharp joined the faculty at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, where he currently serves as the Triplett-Behrakis Professor of Pharmacology, Affiliated Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Director of the Glycoscience Center of Research Excellence (GlyCORE). Professor Sharp is also an active entrepreneur, serving as founder, CTO and Director of GenNext Technologies, Inc.
He has received multiple awards for excellence in research, winning the Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Faculty Research Award from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, the Ron Hites Award from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, and being designated the inaugural Triplett-Behrakis Endowed Professor of Pharmacology. Professor Sharp serves on multiple national and international advisory and review panels as an expert on protein and carbohydrate biophysical and structural analysis by mass spectrometry.
Sandeep K. Misra
Associate Research Professor
Manager, Analytical & Biophysical Chemistry Core
Glycoscience Center of Research Excellence
Dr. Misra is a Research Scientist and Core Manager of the Analytical and Biophysical Chemistry Research Core (ABC Core). He has the expertise, training, and experience in various proteomics, glycomics, and metabolomics technologies using high-resolution mass spectrometry and other biophysical techniques.
He helped improve the hydroxyl radical protein footprinting methods and successfully applied them to several studies, most notably in the studies of allosteric cation-independent mannose phosphate receptor, adalimumab, and VAR2CSA. He has extensive experience in glycopeptide identification, monosaccharide composition analysis, and other glycomics technologies, including the interaction of proteins and glycosaminoglycans. He is well-versed in various proteomics search engines, including Byonic, Mascot, MaxQuant, and Proteome Discoverer. He manages ABC core and has strong project management skills.
Graduate Students
Sayed Mobarak
Graduate Student
BioMolecular Sciences
Contact: samobara@go.olemiss.edu
Godson Orachor
Graduate Student
BioMolecular Sciences
Contact: gioracho@go.olemiss.edu
Anter Shami
Senior R&D Chemist in GlyCORE
BioMolecular Sciences
Contact: aashami@olemiss.edu
Quadrat Yusuph
Graduate Student
Chemistry
Contact: qbyusuph@go.olemiss.edu
Postdoctoral Research Associates
Ajay Sharma
Dr. Ajay Sharma is an experienced Analytical Chemist with expertise in organic chemistry, natural products, food chemistry, and biochemistry. He holds a master’s degree in Chemistry (Major: Chemistry, Minor: Biochemistry, 2011) from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India, and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry (Natural Products, 2019) from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering & Technology, Punjab, India with Inspire Fellowship.
Currently, Dr. Sharma is serving as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Biomolecular Science, University of Mississippi (April 2024 – present). Prior to this, he worked as a Senior Executive for Food Adulteration at the Nestle Food Safety Institute (NFSI) at the Nestle R&D Centre, Manesar, Gurgaon, India (July 2022 – March 2024). Before joining Nestle, Dr. Sharma was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry, UCRD, Chandigarh University, Mohali, India (August 2018 – July 2022).
Dr. Sharma is highly skilled in the characterization and identification of compounds using a wide range of analytical techniques, including Mass Spectrometry, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS, GC-MS/MS, and GC-GC-TOF. He has extensive experience in method development and validation for the identification of small molecules, contaminants, adulterants, and plant toxins.
Currently, Dr. Sharma’s research focuses on evaluating various applications of hydroxyl radical protein footprinting using the newly developed Flash Oxidation (Fox) Protein Footprinting System and LC-MS/MS for protein structural characterization.
Contact: asharm18@olemiss.edu
Mingming Zhao
Dr. Mingming Zhao earned her Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Macau. She has been involved in the development and application of advanced mass spectrometry techniques (GC-MS, LC-MS) for both targeted and untargeted metabolomics, with a focus on discovering marker compounds of pharmaceutical interest.
Currently, Dr. Zhao is pioneering the development of a mass spectrometry-based radical protein footprinting approach to study the structural pharmacology of protein pharmaceuticals in whole blood. Her research centers on characterizing protein conformation and interactions within the native biomedical matrix of whole blood from type 2 diabetes models. Additionally, Dr. Zhao serves as a guest associate editor for the Journal of Frontiers in Pharmacology.
Contact: mzhao3@olemiss.edu
Undergraduate Students
Lyle Tobin
Undergraduate Research Assistant
Majors: Biochemistry, & Classics
Contact: ltobin@go.olemiss.edu