|
|
|
|
CONTENTS
Gerty & Carl Cori Lecture
Faculty News
Student Awards
Thesis Examinations
Events
Welcome to New BMB Arrivals
Research Awards
Latest Publications
Seminar Schedule
|
|
|
|
The 2018 Gerty & Carl Cori Lecture
Tania Baker, PhD, from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, presented the 2018 Carl and Gerty Cori Lecture on September 25, 2018, in Connor Auditorium, Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. Dr. Baker's seminar was entitled "AAA+ Unfoldase Motors: Powerful Protein Destroyers and Activators”. Following the reception, faculty held a dinner for Dr. Baker at Cafe Napoli Restaurant in Clayton.
For more information on Dr. Tania Baker, please click here.
|
|
|
|
John Majors Symposium
On Friday, October 19th, 2018, a symposium in remembrance of Dr. John Majors was held in Moore Auditorium on the medical campus of Washington University. Many colleagues, friends and family members from the university community, as well as from across the country, were in attendance. Drs. Peter Burgers, Mark Johnston, Charlie Rice, and Harold Varmus all gave heartfelt talks about John’s influence in biophysics as well as speaking about the different hobbies (i.e., backpacking and golf) and interests John had outside of the lab. It was great to hear about the many sides of John that were not widely known. By the end of the day, everyone had learned something new about John.
The night concluded with a dinner at the Eric P. Newman Center on the medical campus. John’s nephew, Craig Hollow, and niece, Joleen Hollow-Bist, shared their experiences with John as an uncle. Many others shared personal stories about John and his influence on their life and work. Sonja Hunter and Kim Gerick, mentees of John, made a beautiful tribute slide show displaying personal pictures of John Majors’ life with family, friends, and colleagues.
If you would like to view that slide show presentation, click here.
Thank you to everyone who came from near and far to help us honor our friend and colleague John Majors.
A memorial fund has been established in Dr. John Majors’ name.
To make a donation online, please visit: https://alumni.wustl.edu/JohnMajors
To read John Majors’ Obituary – Click here.
Click on the following to view more photos or a slideshow of the photos taken at the event.
|
|
|
|
Symposium in Honor of Dr. Jim Janetka
The American Chemical Society in Saint Louis awarded Dr. Jim Janetka with the Saint Louis Award. This award is presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of chemistry and demonstrated potential to further the advancement of the chemical profession. The award symposium was held on November 2, 2018 on the Washington University of Saint Louis campus. Various speakers where invited to present in the afternoon, followed by a reception and banquet at the Glen Echo Country Club. Congratulations Dr. Janetka.
|
|
|
|
Dr. Pike awarded Professor of the Year
On November 15th, the Distinguished Service Teaching Awards ceremony honored faculty that exhibited exemplary teaching skills from the 2017-2018 school year. The Class of 2021 awarded Dr. Linda Pike with Professor of the Year. Congratulations Dr. Pike!
|
|
|
|
Congratulations to Drs. Hall and Pike!
Drs. Kathleen Hall and Linda Pike were selected as new fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society.
The AAAS selects fellows in recognition of their distinguished efforts to advance science and its applications, and has selected eleven faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis – the most in a decade-and-a-half. (more…)
|
|
|
On January 14th, 2019, Dr. Michael Kinch spoke to PBS Living St. Louis about his book on the history of vaccines and the controversies of the past and the present, as well as the successes.
You can view the Living St. Louis video here. |
|
|
|
2018 Elson Fellowship in Honor of Dr. Elliot Elson
|
|
Congratulations to Sarah Clippinger for being selected for the 2018 Elson Fellowship.
For more information on Sarah Clippinger, please click here.
|
|
|
|
2018 David F. Silbert Summer Fellowship Awarded to:
|
|
|
During the summer of 2018, Mr. John LeClair, a second-year medical student, performed research with Drs. Lisa McKenzie and Milan Chheda in the Department of Medicine, Medical Oncology. His project was entitled “Characterizing the role of CHD4 in glioblastoma treatment response”.
|
|
|
|
During the summer of 2018, Ms. Meng (Mary) Zhu, a second-year medical student, performed research with Drs. Matthew Walter and Michael Alberti in the Department of Medicine, Bone Marrow Transplant. Her project was entitled “Mutant U2AF1(Q157P) expression alters hematopoiesis in vivo”.
|
|
|
|
Robb Welty in the program of Computational and Molecular Biophysics in the laboratory of Dr. Kathleen Hall. His thesis was entitled "Kinetic Modeling of RNA Folding and Allostery".
|
|
|
|
Fengbo Zhou in the program of Computational and Molecular Biophysics in the laboratory of Dr. Weikai Li. His thesis was entitled "Mass spectrometry footprinting analysis and molecular dynamics simulation for structural studies on transmembrane proteins".
|
|
|
On December 8th, 2018, the BMB Department celebrated its annual Holiday Party at Saratoga Lanes in Maplewood, MO. Everyone enjoyed bowling, pool and a visit from Santa.
Click on the following to view more photos or a slideshow of the photos taken at the event.
|
|
|
Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology Graduate Program Retreat
|
|
On November 15 and 16, 2018, the BBSB hosted their 25th Annual Graduate Student Retreat at the Cedar Creek Conference Center in New Haven, MO. Drs. Michael Greenberg and Meredith Jackrel were the two main speakers on Thursday evening. Dr. Greenberg spoke on "The Molecular and Cellular Biophysics of Heart Disease", and Dr. Jackrel spoke on "Protein Disappregases to Counter Protein Misfolding".
The best student talk awards were given to Katherine Basore for her talk entitled "Structural insights into alphavirus-receptor interactions" and Justin Miller for his talk entitled "Prodrugs...activate! Towards rationale design of lipophilic prodrugs.
|
|
On October 26th, 2018, the BMB Department held our 4th Annual Chili Cook-off. Because it was close to Halloween, this year’s event also included a costume contest!
The winner with the best Chili was the Robertson lab!
The Lohman lab won best costume – they all “dressed up” as Dr. Lohman!
|
|
|
BMB Department Welcomes...
|
|
|
Samantha Barrick-Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Michael Greenberg's lab.
|
|
|
|
Ken Buss-Departmental Accounting Assistant.
|
|
|
|
Rahul Chadda-Senior Scientist in Dr. Janice Robertson's lab.
|
|
|
|
Matthew Cruz-Graduate Student in Dr. Greg Bowman's lab.
|
|
|
|
Jasmine Cubuk-Graduate Student in Dr. Andrea Soranno's lab.
|
|
|
|
Juan Jeremias-Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Andrea Soranno's lab.
|
|
|
|
Matthew Mahoney-Research Specialist in Dr. Jim Janetka's lab.
|
|
|
|
Kacey Mersch-Graduate Student in Dr. Janice Robertson's lab.
|
|
|
|
Olivia Murray-Staff Scientist in Dr. John Cooper's lab.
|
|
|
|
Guomin Shen-Visiting Researcher in Dr. Weikai Li's lab.
|
|
|
|
Neha Vithani-Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Greg Bowman's lab.
|
|
|
|
Jorine Voss-Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Jim Janetka's lab.
|
|
|
|
Xiangli Wang-Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr. Rui Zhang's lab.
|
|
|
|
Zhe Zeng-Postdoctoral Research Associate in Dr.Weikai Li's lab.
|
|
|
Research Awards
January 31, 2019 - Weikai Li, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, along with Michael L. Gross, PhD, professor of chemistry, immunology, and medicine, received a new four year grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for their research entitled “New chemical probes enable Mass Spectrometry-based footprinting of human protein structure in lipid membranes and cells”.
January 23, 2019 - Justin Porter, a Computational & Systems Biology student in the Bowman laboratory, received a three year National Research Service Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for his research entitled “Physics-based precision medicine: computationally phenotyping myosin isoforms and cardiomyopathy mutations”.
January 17, 2019 - Andrea Soranno, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics received a new three year Research Grant Award from the Alzheimer’s Association (AARG) for his work entitled Conformational analysis of ApoE isoforms and their role in AD mechanism.
January 9th, 2019 – Weikai Li, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics received a four year renewal from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute for his research entitled “Structural and Functional Basis of the Vitamin K Cycle”.
December 27th, 2018 – Weikai Li, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, along with Rui Zhang, PhD, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics received a new three year, grant award from the W. M. Keck foundation for their research entitled “Terminal coupling enabled structure determination of human membrane proteins at atomic resolution”.
October 19th, 2018 – Andrea Soranno, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics received a New Investigator Award in Alzheimer’s Disease from the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), Inc. for his work entitled “Identifying Neurotoxic Conformers in the Structural Ensemble of apoE”.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
