Recent department achievements
Faculty Achievements
- Anna Zolkiewska has received a four-year $1.245 million grant from the National Cancer Institute
-- at the National Institutes of Health -- to study a promising breast cancer marker
called ADAM12. The grant is titled "ADAM12 in breast tumor initiating cells." Press Release
- John Tomich had Science Daily publish an article from Communications and Marketing, “Newly Discovered Molecule
Could Deliver Drugs to Treat Diseases,” on Tomich's research.
Student Awards and Scholarships
- Obdulia Covarrubias (undergraduate) named a 2013 McNair Scholar
- Jenny Barriga (undergraduate, Bossman) awarded a 2013 Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.
- Prashant Wani (graduate, Roelofs) 1st place in the Biological Sciences division poster competition
for his presentation of "Chaperone mediated assembly of Proteasome: Constructing the
destruction", at the 2013 K-State Research Forum on March 27.
- Sarah Duhachek-Muggy (graduate, Zokiewska) 1st place for her poster presentation, "An essential role of
metalloprotease-disintegrin ADAM12 in triple-negative breast cancer", during the 2012
University of Kansas Cancer Center Research Symposium held at KUMC on November 8,
2012. Collaborators: Hui Li, Yue Qi, and Anna Zolkiewska
- Adriana Avila Flores (graduate, Tomich) and Yue Qi (graduate, Zolkiewska) received the 2011-2012 Excellence in Biochemistry and Molecular
Biophysics Graduate Teaching Award from the department.
- Xiangming Li (graduate, Wangemann) received the 2011-2012 Excellence in Biochemistry and Molecular
Biophysics Graduate Research Award from the department.
Presentations
April
- Jianhan Chen presented an invited talk, "Multi-scale simulation of membrane insertion and self-assembly
of helical peptides" at the 245th American Chemical Society Meeting in New Orleans,
LA on April 10, 2013.
- John Tomich presented a talk, “Branched Amphipathic Peptides that Self-Assemble into Ordered
Bilayer Vesicles”, at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans,
LA, April 7-11, 2013.
- John Tomich presented an invited platform talk, “Peptide Nanovesicles: A Potential Cellular Delivery
System”, at the American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans, LA, April
7-11, 2013.
- Om Prakash presented an invited talk, “Understanding Molecular Function of Antimicrobial Peptide
and Viral Protease- An NMR Study” in the Department of Chemistry, Kansas State University,
Manhattan, KS on April 11, 2013.
- Om Prakash delivered an invited seminar, “Structure-Activity Relationship (SAR) studies of Antimicrobial
Peptide and Norovirus Protease” in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Pittsburgh
State University, Pittsburgh, KS on April 12, 2013.
- John Tomich presented an invited talk, “From Channel Forming Peptide to Vesicle Forming Peptide:
How Inventions Emerge from Basic Research” at the Departments of Biology and Chemistry,
Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS, on April 23, 2013.
March
- Timothy Durrett presented a talk, “Using a novel acyltransferase to alter the physical properties
of plant triacylglycerols for targeted applications”, at the Plant Bio-Industrial
Oils Workshop, Saskatoon, Canada in March 6-7, 2013.
- Cruz, J.C., Pfromm, P.H., Szoszkiewicz, R., Tomich, J.M., Rezac, M.E., “Biophysical Engineering View of Fumed Silica-Based Nanobiocatalysts:
Structure-Activity Relationships Demystified”, at The Colombia-US Workshop on Nanotechnology
for Energy and Medical Applications, March 11-13, 2013.
- Phillip E. Klebba presented a seminar, "Mechanism of TonB action in the transport of Ferric Enterobactin",
at the University of Sao Paulo, Department of Chemistry in March 20, 2013.
- Salete Newton presented a seminar, “The Enigmas of Ferric Enterobactin Transport through E.coli
FepA”, at the University of Sao Paulo, Department of Chemistry in March 2013.
- Tam Tran-Nguyen (graduate, Durrett) and Timothy P. Durrett presented a poster, "Elucidating the structural features that define substrate specificity
and activity of Euonymus alatus Diacylglycerol Acetyltransferase (EaDAcT)", at the
18th Annual K-State Research Forum, Manhattan, KS on March 27, 2013.
January
- Om Prakash presented a talk, "NMR Structure and Backbone Dynamics of a Norovirus protease: Implications
for substrate binding and catalytic function", at the Frontiers of Biophysics, Biotechnology
and Bioinformatics international conference in Mumbai, India on January 16, 2013.
- Om Prakash served as a judge for the Dr. Ratna Phadke Award given to graduate students by Indian
Biophysical Society for best oral presentation at the Frontiers of Biophysics, Biotecnology,
and Bioinformatics international conference in Mumbai, India.
- Tam Tran-Nguyen and Timothy Durrett presented a poster, "Elucidating the structural features that define the substrate
specificity and activity of Euonymus alatus Diacylglycerol Acetyltransferase (EaDAcT)",
at the 2013 Gordon Research Seminar, "Plant Lipids: Structure, Metabolism & Function"
on January 26-27, 2013.
- Sunil Bansal and Timmothy Durrett presented a poster, "Understanding the unusual substrate specificity of Euonymus
alatus diacylglycerol acetyltransferase (EaDAcT)", at the 2013 Gordon Research Seminar,
"Plant Lipids: Structure, Metabolism & Function" on January 26-27, 2013.
- Om Prakash presented "NMR in Drug Designing" at the Research & Development Division of TEVA
Pharmaceuticals India Ltd., Greater Noida, India on January 29, 2013.
- Timothy Durrett presented a talk, "Using a novel acetyltransferase to alter the structure of seed
storage lipids" at the 2013 Gordon Research Conference, "Plant Lipids: Structure,
Metabolism & Function" on January 31, 2013.
Publications
March/April
- Sanjaya, Rachel Miller, Timothy P. Durrett, Dylan K. Kosma, Todd A. Lydic, Bagyalakshmi Muthan, Abraham J.K. Koo, Yury V. Bukhman,
Gavin E. Reid, Gregg A. Howe, John Ohlrogge, and Christoph Benning. (2013) Altered
Lipid Composition and Enhanced Nutritional Value of Arabidopsis Leaves Following Introduction
of an Algal Diacylglycerol Acyltransferase 2. The Plant Cell 35:667
February
- Takahashi, D., Hiromasa, Y.; Kim, Y., Anbanandam, Yao, X; A. Chang, K. and Prakash, O. (2013). Structural and dynamics characterization of norovirus protease. Protein Science. 22: 347-357.
January
- Dai, H., Hiromasa, Y., Takahashi, D., Vandervelde, D., Fabrick, J.A., Kanost, M.R. and Krishnamoorthi, R. (2013) “An initial event in insect innate immune response: Structural and biological
studies of interactions between β-1,3-glucan and the N-terminal domain of β-1,3-glucan
recognition protein.” Biochemistry 52:161-170.
November/December
- An, C., Hiromasa, Y., Lovell, S.W., Zolkiewski, M.,Tomich, J.M., Michel, K. (2012) Biochemical characterization of SRPN6, a malaria parasite invasion
marker in mosquitoes. PLoS ONE 7(11): e48689. PMID: 23152794
- Christen, J.M., Hiromasa, Y., An, C., and Kanost, M.R. (2012) Identification of plasma proteinase complexes with serpin-3 in Manduca sexta. Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 42: 946-955.
- Pi, H., Jones, S., Mercer, L., Meador, J., Caughron, J., Jordan, L., Newton, S., Conway, T., Klebba, P. (2012) "Role of Catecholate Siderophores in Gram-negative Bacterial Colonization
of the Mouse Gut." PLoS One. Web.
- Pope, M., Bukovnik, U., Tomich, J.M., Fleming, S. (2012) Small b2-glycoprotein I peptides protect from ischemia reperfusion
injury. J. Immunology 189(10):5047-5056. PMID: 23034168
- Zhang, T., Ploetz, E. A., Nagy, M., Doyle, S. M., Wickner, S., Smith, P. E. and Zolkiewski, M. (2012) “Flexible connection of the N-terminal domain in ClpB modulates substrate
binding and the aggregate reactivation efficiency”, Proteins 80: 2758-68.
Travel awards