Charles Sanders, PhD

Chuck Sanders graduated from Milligan College with a degree in chemistry and mathematics in 1983. He completed his PhD in chemistry at The Ohio State University in 1988, and then studied biophysics as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University from 1989-1991. He next joined the physiology and biophysics faculty at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  In 2002, he moved to Nashville, Tenn., where he is a Professor of Biochemistry and holds an endowed chair at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. Sanders has served on numerous grant review panels, including two full terms of duty as a member of NIH study sections. He also is the recipient of the Anatrace Membrane Protein Award of the Biophysical Society (2012), and the Hans Neurath Award of the Protein Society (2013). The Sanders lab is focused on research in the area of membrane protein biochemistry and structural biology.  In particular Dr. Sanders is interested in discovering how membrane proteins contribute to human diseases.  

"Growing up in the 1960s, Chuck Sanders was initially led to science by the optimistic notion that it could help him to become a dinosaur.  While that did not work out, the science hook became even more firmly set by the glory of the Apollo space program and backyard astronomy. Accompanied in life by his wife Becky, and three sons, Dr. Sanders started the faculty phase of his career in 1991.

Following a decade of pursuing “basic science” questions, during the 1990s, the Sanders lab had reached a stage of expertise and interests where it clearly was time to pursue research that is directly disease-relevant. That led to the first Sanders lab project on Alzheimer’s disease (AD).   Dr. Sanders’ interest became very personal when his father was diagnosed with AD a few years ago.  As of 2015, he is still able to live at home with Dr. Sanders’ mother, but he has forgotten who she is."