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CONTENTS
Cori Lecture
Faculty News
Student Awards
Thesis Examinations
Retreats
Chili Cookoff! And the winner is ...
Welcome to New BMB Arrivals
Research News
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2017 Carl and Gerty Cori Lecture
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Dr. Taekjip Ha, from Johns Hopkins University, presented this year’s Carl and Gerty Cori Lecture on February 28, 2017 in Connor Auditorium, Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. Dr. Ha is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry with the Johns Hopkins University and an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. (For more information, click here)
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Dr. Galletto Receives Tenure
Congratulations to Dr. Roberto Galletto, whose promotion with tenure was officially approved by the Board of Trustees on March 3, 2017.
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2016 Mentor of the Year Award
Dr. Michael Greenberg, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, was chosen to receive the Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year Award.
Each fall after the completion of funded summer research projects, the Office of Undergraduate Research ask their students to nominate mentors for outstanding contributions to their success as undergraduate researchers.
Dr. Greenberg’s summer student, Paige Cloonan, nominated Michael. She described his caring and diligent attention to her development as a researcher.
Dr. Greenberg received the award at the Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium on Sat. Oct. 29th at noon after a keynote address.
Congratulations, Dr. Greenberg!
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2016 Distinguished Service Teaching Award
Congratulations to Dr. Linda Pike, who received the Distinguished Service Teaching Award from the medical students in recognition of her teaching in the Molecular Foundations of Medicine course.
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Novel approach shows promise against UTIs
A story about Jim Janetka’s research on antibiotic-sparing therapeutics, prompted by his new paper in J Med Chem, has just been published in The Record. His research group has developed small molecules that prevent bacteria from sticking to the bladder wall, halting development of urinary tract infections in mice.
The technology is the basis of his startup company, Fimbrion Therapeutics, who have recently entered into a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline to further develop the lead compounds for human clinical trials.
You can view the story here (wustl.edu).
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Tioma Therapeurics
Contributed by Bill Frazier
Ten years ago I was on the phone with Andy Hoyne, a local attorney willing to help start-ups with no money, trying to think up a name for a new company that would develop antibodies to CD47 that could be used to enhance nitric oxide signaling to treat any number of potential diseases characterized by ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). That day we founded Vasculox, Inc, a company with no money, no facilities, no products and no employees. The next year, I reconnected with Dr. Pamela Manning, a former post doc in the Department of Pharmacology at WUMS. Having spent a few decades at Pfizer, much of that time working on nitric oxide, she was looking for a new opportunity. Pam became interested in Vasculox and signed on as a cofounder. Over the next few years , working at our kitchen tables, we wrote business plans (not really knowing what one looked like), applications for licensing a patent (not knowing if we really needed the license) and STTR/SBIR grants, several of which were funded (totalling over $4 million dollars) allowing us to start developing our products, humanized anti-CD47 antibodies. Biogenerator also stepped in early and provided much needed seed funding and access to their new facility at Cortex in which to grow the company. With a lot of help from other WUMS colleagues including Dr. Will Chapman, Head of Abdominal Transplant, and other colleagues at NIH, we focussed on using the antibodies to treat transplanted organs to reduce IRI, a major cause of transplant failure. Meanwhile, in my lab, we identified certain anti-CD47 antibodies that have the unique property of killing cancer cells but not normal cells. This, along with the fact that cancer therapy is a much bigger market than organ tranplant, led our new management, also ex-Pfizer, to focus Vasculox’ efforts on cancer therapeutics. Preclinical data developed at Vasculox, along with data from a number of academic groups at other universities, persuaded Rivervest, a local VC, to lead a syndicate of four VC groups in a series A funding round of $86 million. Along with the funding has come a new team of executives and board members with decades of experience and a new name, Tioma Therapeutics, Inc. Our kitchen table company is now focused on beginning clinical trials in the near future to understand the potential of anti-CD47 antibodies in treating a wide range of cancers.
For more information about Tioma Therapeurics, visit www.TiomaTx.com.
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Student Awards and Fellowships
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2017 DeGutis Prize in Chemical
Biology/Medicinal Chemistry
On May 5th, 2017, Ms. Whitney Grither was awarded the 2017 Ceil M. DeGutis Prize in Chemical Biology/Medicinal Chemistry. Whitney presented her research entitled: Selective Small Molecule Inhibition of Discoidin Domain Receptor 2. Whitney graduated this Spring from the Biochemistry graduate program. She finished her PhD work in the laboratory of Dr. Greg Longmore with the express purpose of identifying novel modes of inhibiting an underappreciated collagen receptor, DDR2, which they had just shown was critical for breast cancer metastasis in experimental mouse models and humans (Nature Cell Biology, 2013). (For more information, click here.)
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Congratulations to Joseph Stodola for being named the Olin Biomedical Science Fellow
Dr. Stodola obtained his PhD degree in May 2016 in Peter Burgers’ lab. He is currently working at Sigma-Aldrich.
These Fellowships were created by a generous gift from the Olin Foundation. The Olin Fellowships are presented to Ph.D. and M.D./Ph.D. students conducting research in the biomedical sciences in any Washington University graduate program who have made significant contributions, and demonstrated the potential to become outstanding research scientists.
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Congratulations to Margery Gang for receiving the 2016 David F. Silbert Summer Fellowship Award
During the 2016 summer, Margery Gang, a second-year medical student, was the recipient of the David F. Silbert Summer Fellowship award.
Supported by this award, Ms. Gang performed research in the laboratories of Drs. Matthew Christopher and Timothy Ley in the Division of Oncology of the Department of Medicine. Her project was entitled “WT1 loss-of-function mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia”. (For more information, click here.)
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Congratulations to Drake Jensen for being named the 2016 Gary K. Ackers Fellow
Mr. Jensen received his B.A. in Chemistry and B.S. in Biology from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2013. During this time, he began pursuing research in equilibrium and kinetic studies of Calmodulin target recognition. After graduation he continued research in the same lab and graduated in 2015 with a M.S. in Chemistry. He joined the Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University the same year as part of the Computational & Molecular Biophysics program. (For more information, click here.)
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Congratulations to Robb Welty for being names the 2016 Elliot Elson Fellow
Mr. Welty received his B.S., double majoring in chemistry and biochemistry, from the University of Minnesota Duluth. During that time, he began doing research studying the effects of molecular crowding on diffusion using fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). After graduation he continued working in the same laboratory and in 2013 graduated with a M.S. in chemistry. He joined the Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University the same year as part of the Computational & Molecular Biophysics program. (For more information, click here.)
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Congratulations to Sarem Hailemariam for being awarded the 2016 MilliporeSigma Fellowship in memory of Dr. Gerty Cori
Ms. Hailemariam received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. She joined the Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis in 2012 as part of the Molecular Cell Biology program. Ms. Hailemariam has always had scientific interests in mechanisms employed by different organisms to maintain genome integrity. Prior to joining DBBS, Sarem worked on the mammalian DNA replication origin-licensing factor, Cdt1. (For more information, click here.)
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Congratulations to Lindsey Steinberg for being awarded the David F. Silbert Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award
The 2015-2016 David F. Silbert Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award goes to Ms. Lindsey Steinberg for her work in the Microbes & Pathogenesis course. Ms. Steinberg was nominated by Dr. Henry Huang. Ms. Steinberg exemplified the spirit of this award through her dedication and lasting contribution to the course, the course master, and the students in the class. (For more information, click here.)
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Jayan Rammohan defended his PhD thesis entitled "Regulatory mechanisms of mycobacterial transcription initiation" on September 30, 2016. Jay was in the Computational and Molecular Biophysics program and completed his thesis in the laboratory of Dr. Eric Galburt.
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Alex Holehouse defended his PhD thesis entitled "Sequence Determinants of the Individual and Collective Behaviour of Intrinsically Disordered Proteins" on May 24, 2017. Alex was in the Computational and Molecular Biophysics program and completed his thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Rohit Pappu.
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Shannon Ohlemacher defended her PhD thesis entitled "Novel Insights into Yersiniabactin Biosynthesis in Uropathogenic Escherichia coli" on May 12, 2017. Shannon was in the Biochemistry program and completed her thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Jeffrey Henderson.
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Shankar Parajuli defended his PhD thesis entitled "Human RNaseH1 limits R loops and facilitates DNA replication" on May 15, 2017. Shankar was in the Biochemistry program and completed his thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Sheila Stewart.
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Kwabena (Koby) Sarpong defended his PhD thesis entitled "Biophysical Studies of the Intracellular Domains of the EGFR family of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases" on March 21, 2017. Koby was in the Biochemistry program and completed his thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Ron Bose.
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Stephanie Scherer defended her PhD thesis entitled "Novel regulation of neuronal Gα13 signaling by R7-RGS complexes" on July 15, 2016. Stephanie was in the Biochemistry program and completed her thesis work in the laboratory of Dr. Kendall Blumer.
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2016 SLU and WU Joint Retreat
The SLU/WU Biochemistry Joint Retreat was held on October 7, 2016 at the Danforth Plant Science Center. The day featured various talks from students, postdocs and faculty from the Biochemistry departments at both institutions.
Click the following links to view more photos or a slideshow of the photos taken at the event.
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2016 Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics Graduate Program Retreat
The BCM/CMBP Retreat was held on October 21-22, 2016 at the Cedar Creek Conference Center. Various student talks were presented during the day by senior students in the program. The guest speakers for the evening session were presented by two WU faculty members. The first talk was presented by Dr. Greg Bowman, Assistant Professor in Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, whose talk was entitled "Controlling proteins' funstions by exploiting their uncharted conformations". The second talk was presented by Dr. Sergej Djuranovic, Assistant Professor in Cell Biology, whose talk was entitled "Mechanisms of translational control during translation elongation".
Talk Winner:
Alex Holeshouse
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Chili Cookoff. And the winner is ....
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On April 21st, 2017, we held our 3rd Annual Chili Cook-off. This year included a few non-chili options such as vegan and Chinese selections. The best chili was awarded to The Burgers Lab. Congratulations! The Burgers lab won a free lunch for the entire lab.
Click on the following to view more photos or a slideshow of the photos taken at the event.
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BMB Department Welcomes...
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Drake Jensen-Graduate student joined Dr. Eric Galburt's lab.
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Melanie Sparks-Graduate student joined Drs. Peter Burgers and Roberto Galletto's labs.
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Andrea Soranno-Assistant Professor.
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Rui Zhang-Assistant Professor.
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Becky Owens-Administrative Coordinator in the Administrative office.
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Rui Ma-Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Rui Zhang's lab.
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Elson Fellowship Endowment Fund
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The colleagues, friends and trainees of Dr. Elliot L. Elson have expressed a wish to establish an endowed education and training fund to honor him and his extraordinary impact on both the Washington University School of Medicine and molecular biophysics. His teaching and research contributions have been far-reaching and numerous.
The Elliot L. Elson Education Training Endowment will be used to support opportunities for students and the very best post-doctoral trainees in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics.
If you would like to help contribute to this endowment fund, please click here.
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Research Awards
Gregory Bowman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics received a two year subcontract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for his project entitled “Therapeutics Targeting Filoviral Interferon-Antagonist and Replication Functions”. This project is a subcontract with Drs. Gaya Amarsinghe (Wash U) and Christopher Basler (Georgia State University).
Eric Galburt, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, along with Christina Stallings, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Microbiology, received an equipment supplement grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for their MPI research entitled “Investigating Novel Mechanisms of Transcription Initiation Regulation in Mycobacteria”.
Eric Galburt, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, received a new four year grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for his research entitled “Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Transcription Initiation”.
Roberto Galletto, PhD, Associate Professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics received a four year grant award renewal from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for his research entitled “Helicase Activity and its Role in Telomere and Telomerase Regulation”.
Michael Greenberg, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics has been awarded a CDI Micro-Grant from the Washington University Center for Cellular Imaging to use high-resolution imaging techniques to study familial cardiomyopathies in stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes.
Michael Greenberg, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics received an award from the CDI hPSC Core Pilot Grant Program to develop models of familial cardiomyopathies using stem cells.
Jim Janetka, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and Chemistry Adjunct, along with Scott Hultgren, PhD, Helen L. Stoever Professor of Molecular Microbiology received and a four year grant award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for their research entitled “Small Molecule Bacterial Lectin Antagonists for UTI Treatment and Prevention”.
Jim Janetka, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, received a new two year grant award from the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Research Fund for his research entitled “Inhibitors of growth factor activation as new adjunct chemotherapy for cancer”.
Timothy M. Lohman, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics received an equipment supplement grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for his research entitled “SSB Protein/DNA Interactions”.
Timothy M. Lohman, PhD, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics received a four year grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for his research entitled “Helicase Catalyzed DNA Unwinding”.
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