Dr. Tomko received his bachelors of science in biochemistry from the University of Missouri, Columbia. He then earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry in the laboratory of Dr. Timothy Lohman at Washington University in Saint Louis where he studied the translocation mechanisms of helicase motors including UvrD using transient-state kinetic methods. He joined the Galburt Lab in 2010 as a postdoctoral research fellow and is now a staff scientist. Eric is currently working on the mechanism of DNA unwinding and transcription start-site scanning by the pre-initiation complex of the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. His alias is “The Inspector”.