Tina M. Henkin

Dr. Tina M. Henkin is Professor of Microbiology, Robert W. and Estelle S. Bingham Professor of Biological Sciences, and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the College of Arts & Sciences at The Ohio State University. Henkin’s research focuses on the analysis of the mechanisms through which cells sense changes in their environment and transmit that information to the level of gene expression. The Henkin laboratory uses the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis as a model system, and focuses primarily on genes involved in protein synthesis and amino acid metabolism. Henkin has uncovered systems in which nascent RNA transcripts act as ‘riboswitches’ to directly sense physiological signals and control gene expression through RNA structural rearrangements. Henkin’s research has been continuously funded since 1987 by the National Institutes of Health. She was co-awarded the National Academy of Sciences Pfizer Prize in Molecular Biology, and is the recipient of Ohio State’s Distinguished Scholar Award, and the American Cancer Society Junior Faculty Research Award.  She is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences in addition to her American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership. Henkin is the author of over 100 papers in major, peer-reviewed journals such as Cell, Genes & Development, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, and holds two patents. She is an Editor of the Journal of Bacteriology and is also the coauthor of Molecular Genetics of Bacteria, a major bacterial genetics textbook.