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CONTENTS
Faculty News
Student Awards
Thesis Examinations
Welcome to New BMB Arrivals
Research Awards
Seminar Schedule
Latest Publications
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Faculty Spotlight - Dr. Linda Pike
Snapshot of a Scientist
As a five-year-old child, Dr. Linda Pike explored the cellular world through the eyepiece of a microscope and learned about chemical reactions involved in photo film development. Her lifelong love of chemistry was influenced by her father, a chemical engineer, who had Linda memorizing chemical names and symbols before kindergarten. At a very young age, Pike was destined to be a scientist.
“My father did photography as a hobby, and he used to take us down to the dark room with him,” Pike said. “We would watch the film develop and then the pictures coming up out of the dark. It was like magic.”
From the time she finished high school, she was driven to study the interface of biology and chemistry. A few years into her undergraduate education in chemistry at the University of Delaware, Pike set her goals on obtaining her PhD and becoming an academic professor. And that is exactly what she did.
To continue reading, please click here.
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Dr. Greg Bowman Featured in The Source
Folding@home’s fight against COVID-19 enlists big tech, gamers, pro soccer
When the crowdsourced supercomputing project Folding@home first announced a shift to coronavirus research and asked for new volunteers to run its software and expand its computing capacity, organizations and citizen scientists from all walks of life heeded the call. Now, about four months later, the number of volunteers has increased a hundredfold.
To continue reading, please click here.
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Congratulations to Dr. Jim Janetka, whose promotion to Professor was officially approved on September 11, 2020.
For more information on Dr. Jim Janetka, click here.
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Dr. Natalie Niemi
Dr. Natalie Niemi joined the Department on July 1, 2020, as an Assistant Professor on the Investigator Track. Her lab will investigate how mitochondria are built, regulated, and maintained across physiological contexts. They blend biochemistry, systems biology, and physiology to understand mechanisms of mitochondrial regulation and how they influence metabolism and organellar function. Using insights gained from our molecular studies, the Niemi lab aims to understand how mitochondrial dysfunction contributes to mammalian pathophysiology, with the long-term goal of translating our discoveries into new therapeutic options to restore mitochondrial function in human disease.
For more information on Dr. Natalie Niemi, click here.
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2020 Ceil M. DeGutis Prize awarded to:
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Ms. Cohan is a Ph.D. Candidate in Biomedical Engineering at the McKelvey School of Engineering. Ms. Cohan was nominated for this award by her thesis mentor, Dr. Rohit Pappu. In her thesis work, she utilizes a variety of computational and experimental techniques to understand how intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) might impact the molecular functions of bacterial proteins.
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Mr. Jonathan Lin completed his PhD thesis in the lab of Dr. Rajendra Apte in the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. His research led to the discovery that NAD+ intermediate molecules can enhance the metabolism of the neurosensory retina and thus has therapeutic potential for preventing photoreceptor neurodegeneration. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis this past May with an MD/PhD under the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP). He will pursue his postgraduate education in the Transitional Year Residency at MetroWest Medical Center followed by Ophthalmology Residency at Harvard Medical School/Mass, Eye and Ear Infirmary.
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2020 MilliporeSigma Fellowship awarded to:
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Ms. Jasmine Cubuk is a fourth-year graduate student in the Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology (BBSB) program. She is doing her PhD thesis work in the lab of Dr. Andrea Soranno, where she studies how sequence composition of intrinsically disordered regions within a protein can affect interactions with both proteins and nucleic acids using single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy.
Jasmine joined the BBSB program after receiving her B.S. from Stockton University in Galloway, NJ with a major in biochemistry & molecular biology and a minor in holistic health. Prior to starting her Ph.D. work, Jasmine studied polymer synthesis and how polymer interactions contribute to optimized hydrogel formation.
To continue reading, please click here.
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Mr. Jhullian Alston (JJ) is a fourth-year graduate student in the Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology (BBSB) program. He is completing his Ph.D. thesis work jointly between the labs of Dr. Andrea Soranno and Dr. Alex Holehouse, where he combines computational biophysics with single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy to understand how intrinsically disordered regions within a protein can affect interactions with both proteins and nucleic acids.
Jhullian joined the BBSB program after receiving his B.A. in Biology from The University of Maryland, Baltimore County where he was a Meyerhoff and MARC Scholar. Prior to starting his Ph.D. work, Jhullian had a diverse research background, studying nerve injury after radical prostatectomy, developing mouse models of prostate cancer, using CRISPR to develop fusion proteins in P. falciparum and C. elegans, and investigating the effects of O-GlcNAcylation.
To continue reading, please click here.
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Justin Porter in the Computational and Systems Biology program in the laboratory of Dr. Greg Bowman. His thesis was entitled "Conformational ensemble encodes functional properties of beta lactamases, myosin motors, and other biological macromolecules".
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Min Kyung Shinn in the Physics program in the laboratory of Dr. Timothy Lohman. Her thesis was entitled "Specificity of SSB binding to its Interacting Proteins and Multiple Allosteric Effects of SSB C-terminal Tail on Assembly and DNA Binding of E. coli RecOR Proteins".
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Sukrit Singh in the Computational and Molecular Biophysics program in the laboratory of Dr. Greg Bowman. His thesis was entitled "Understanding and exploiting protein allostery and dynamics using molecular simulations".
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Melanie Sparks in the Biochemistry. Biophysics and Structural Biology program in the laboratory of Drs. Peter Burgers and Roberto Galletto. Her thesis was entitled "Bumpy Road Ahead: Overcoming DNA replication obstacles one barrier at a time".
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BMB Department Welcomes...
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Jonathan Borowsky-Undergraduate Student in Dr. Greg Bowman's lab.
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Emily Hunter-Staff Scientist in Dr. Natalie Niemi's lab.
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Catherine Kuhn-Research Technician I in Dr. Greg Bowman's lab.
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Michaela Morhaus-Research Technician II in Dr. Natalie Niemi's lab.
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Mariah Norman-Research Technician II in Dr. Jim Janetka's lab.
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Wenhao (Owen) Ouyang-Undergraduate Student in Dr. Andrea Soranno's lab.
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Ishan Taneja-Bioinformatics Research Assistant in Dr. Alex Holehouse's lab.
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Research Awards
August 21st, 2020 – Carl Frieden, PhD, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, received a new one-year grant award from BrightFocus Foundation for his research entitled “Understanding apoE”.
July 10th, 2020 – Rui Zhang, PhD, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics received a new five-year grant award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences for his research entitled “Structural and functional studies of axonemal microtubule inner proteins (MIPs)”.
May 14. 2020 - Gregory Bowman, PhD, Associate Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics received a new one-year grant award from the National Science Foundation for his research entitled “RAPID: Folding@home and COVID-19”.
April 24, 2020 - Timothy M. Lohman, PhD, Marvin A. Brennecke Professor of Biophysics and Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics received a new five-year MIRA grant award totalling $3,771,457 from National Institute of General Medical Sciences for his research entitled “Mechanisms of Helicases, Translocases and SSB Proteins involved in Genome Maintenance”
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