News

A 2019 paper in the Journal of Endocrinology by Dr. Giulia Baldini, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Dr. Kevin Phelan, Professor of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences, continues to provide obesity researchers with important insights and context. Their review article, “The melanocortin pathway and control of appetite-progress and therapeutic implications,” was one of the most highly cited articles in the Journal of Endocrinology in 2021 and is now being showcased in the journal’s Impact Factor Collection. Congratulations, Dr. Baldini and Dr. Phelan!

Congratulations to Drs. Reine Protacio, Tresor Mukiza, Mari Davidson and Wayne Wahls in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The significance of their recent Genetics paper on the plasticity of meiotic recombination – a component of evolution of species – was just highlighted in the prestigious journal Nature Reviews Genetics. These accolades were featured with top billing on the home page of the journal and will appear in the August print issue (volume 23, issue 8).  The discoveries made by Protacio et al. were also the topic of an invited perspective article in Frontiers in Genetics.

Dr. Kevin Raney, Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, notes that this is the tenth time that a scientific publication from Dr. Wahls’ laboratory has been discussed in a commentary, editorial, highlight or editors’ choice of top papers published during the year. “This is a remarkable achievement,” said Dr. Raney. “It reflects the sustained high quality of fundamental, basic science research conducted by a group of talented UAMS scientists.”

The Wahls laboratory uses a model experimental organism, fission yeast, to discover mechanisms for chromosome dynamics in meiosis, which is an essential component of the sexual life cycle of eukaryotes. Their research has provided insight into how chromosomes are transmitted faithfully between generations, how genetic recombination is positioned within genomes, and how meiotic processes contribute to the evolution of species.

Research in the Wahls laboratory is currently supported by a $1.7 million grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, which is the basic sciences institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Reine U. Protacio, Mari K. Davidson and Wayne P. Wahls. Adaptive Control of the Meiotic Recombination Landscape by DNA Site-dependent Hotspots With Implications for Evolution. Front. Genet.

SURF students presented their research at the Mid-Summer Symposium.

Congratulations to Wayne Wahls, Ph.D., who received a new $1.69 million, four-year grant from the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) entitled “Systematic elucidation of DNA sequence codes.”

Joonas Jämsén, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Jämsén earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in biochemistry at the University of Turku in Finland. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cancer Research in the UK (CRUK) in London, and the Institute for Molecular Oncology in Milan, Italy, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis.

Since 2014, Dr. Jämsén has served as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Genome Integrity & Structural Biology Laboratory at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health (NIH), in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Funded since 2018 by an NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award, his research has focused on the molecular architecture of oxidative stress induced double strand break repair.

Enhancing scanning electrochemical microscopy’s potential to probe dynamic co-culture systems via hyperspectral assisted-imaging.
Goines S, Deng M, Glasscott MW, Leung JWC, Dick JE.
Analyst. 2022

Effects of Gamma-Tocotrienol on Intestinal Injury in a GI-Specific Acute Radiation Syndrome Model in Nonhuman Primate.
Garg S, Garg TK, Wise SY, Fatanmi OO, Miousse IR, Savenka AV, Basnakian AG, Singh VK, Hauer-Jensen M.
Int J Mol Sci.

Discovery of a dual WDR5 and Ikaros PROTAC degrader as an anti-cancer therapeutic.
Li D, Yu X, Kottur J, Gong W, Zhang Z, Storey AJ, Tsai YH, Uryu H, Shen Y, Byrum SD, Edmondson RD, Mackintosh SG, Cai L, Liu Z, Aggarwal AK, Tackett AJ, Liu J, Jin J, Wang GG.
Oncogene

Congratulations to Alan Diekman, Ph.D. on receiving his 10th Golden Apple Award from the freshman medical students.

The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department is pleased to welcome our 2022 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship students for 10 weeks of research.

Congratulations to Dr. Alan Diekman, Professor in the departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Urology, who received the Distinguished Mentor Award from the American Urological Association and Urology Care Foundation at the AUA annual meeting in New Orleans on Saturday. The award recognizes Dr. Diekman for his work with medical students in the area of urology research and his long track record of providing an excellent training environment for early-career investigators.