Professor Eric Klein is an Associate Professor of Biology at Rutgers University-Camden and the Graduate Program Director for the Center for Computational and Integrative Biology. He received his BA in Biochemistry, BS in Chemical Engineering, and PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on the biochemistry and physiology of bacterial sphingolipids. Klein was awarded a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar fellowship for his project Bacterial sphingolipids: Novel regulators of host inflammation. He will collaborate with Professor Tsaffrir Zor at Tel Aviv University to explore the ability of bacterially-derived sphingolipids to inhibit immune responses in a variety of cell types including macrophages and skin cells. These findings are expected to contribute to the development of anti-inflammatory therapeutics as well as the elucidation of the mechanisms by which sphingolipids mediate host-microbe interactions.

Klein’s recent publications include:

Dhakephalkar, T.,  Guan, Z., and Klein, E.A. CpgD is a phosphoglycerate cytidylyltransferase required for ceramide diphosphoglycerate synthesis. J. Biological Chemistry (2025), 301(7).

Stankeviciute, G.S., Tang, P., Ashley, B., Chamberlain, J.D., Hansen, M.E.B., Coleman, A., D’Emilia, R., Fu, L., Mohan, E.C., Nguyen, H., Guan, Z., Campopiano, D.C., Klein, E.A. Convergent evolution of bacterial ceramide synthesis. Nature Chemical Biology (2022), 18(3): 305-312.