Genome Maintenance by DNA Helicase B.
Hazeslip L, Zafar MK, Chauhan MZ, Byrd AK.
Genes (Basel). 2020
Selective Survival of Sim1/MC4R Neurons in Diet-Induced Obesity.
Nyamugenda E, Griffin H, Russell S, Cooney KA, Kowalczyk NS, Islam I, Phelan KD, Baldini G.
iScience. 2020
Dual mechanisms suppress meloxicam bioactivation relative to sudoxicam.
Barnette DA, Schleiff MA, Osborn LR, Flynn N, Matlock M, Swamidass SJ, Miller GP.
Toxicology. 2020
The UAMS Graduate School held a virtual hooding ceremony which you can read more about here. The Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department graduated three students last year. Tresor Mukiza, Ph.D. is now a postdoctoral fellow in Joseph Opferman’s lab at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Tresor’s mentor at UAMS was Wayne Wahls. Eugene Nyamugenda, Ph.D. is now a postdoctoral fellow in Ravi Allada’s lab at Northwestern University in the Department of Neurobiology. Eugene’s mentor at UAMS was Giulia Baldini. Bradley Shields, M.D., Ph.D. is beginning a residence in dermatology at Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Bradley’s mentor at UAMS was Alan Tackett.
Alan Tackett, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, was featured in a story on KARK this morning about clinical trials at UAMS.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
UAMS College of Medicine
Co-Director, Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Proteomics Shared Resource and UAMS Proteomics Core Facility
My research interests are focused on proteomics and mass spectrometry. As co-director of the Proteomics Shared Resource and UAMS Proteomics Core Facility, I am involved in a wide variety of basic and translational research projects and collaborations at any given time. The core facility maintains and operates five state-of-the-art mass spectrometers, two of which I secured for the facility with NIH shared instrument grants. The core lab offers cutting-edge, affordable proteomics analysis to all UAMS investigators and Cancer Institute members. Our facility is nationally recognized with users in 35 states and Puerto Rico, and our research is routinely published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals. We work closely with other researchers to help them design proteomics experiments, apply for grants and publish papers. We offer complete sample processing services so that our collaborators can submit samples they can easily prepare in their own labs. We also work closely with the UAMS Bioinformatics Core to prepare data for our collaborators in publication-ready formats.
NIH/NIGMS: 1S10OD026736
Samuel Mackintosh: Project PI
Title “Q Exactive HF-X Hybrid Quadrupole Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer”
08/01/2019 to 07/31/2020
$763,961*
*project direct cost
As part of Dr. Mackintosh’s role as co-director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Proteomics Shared Resource and UAMS Proteomics Core Facility, he also serves as Co-I on the ACRI/UAMS COBRE grant (Center for Translational Pediatric Research, PI: Alan Tackett PhD., NIH award P20GM121293) and the UAMS INBRE grant (Partnerships for Biomedical Research in Arkansas, PI: Larry Cornett PhD., NIH award P20GM103429).
Department of Internal Medicine
John Arthur, M.D., Ph.D.
Jawahar Mehta, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Geriatrics
Srinivas Ayyadevara, Ph.D.
Richard Dennis, Ph.D.
Robert Reis, Ph.D.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Giulia Baldini, Ph.D.
Marie Burdine, Ph.D.
Alicia Byrd, Ph.D.
Stephanie Byrum, Ph.D.
Tim Chambers, Ph.D.
Rick Edmondson, Ph.D.
Robert Eoff, Ph.D.
Samantha Kendrick, Ph.D.
Grover Miller, Ph.D.
Kevin Raney, Ph.D.
Aaron Storey, Ph.D.
Alan Tackett, Ph.D.
Wayne Wahls, Ph.D.
Boris Zybaylov, Ph.D.
Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences
Edgar Garcia-Rill, Ph.D.
Angus MacNicol, Ph.D.
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Renny Lan, Ph.D.
Department of Pathology
Mayumi Nakagawa, M.D., Ph.D.
Steven Post, Ph.D.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics
Roy Morello, Ph.D.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Mark Smeltzer, Ph.D.
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Martin Hauer-Jensen, M.D., Ph.D.
Department of Environmental and Occupational Health
Mitch McGill, Ph.D.
Gunnar Boysen, Ph.D.
Randy Haun, Ph.D., Arkana Laboratories
Jeffrey Lewis, Ph.D., UA-Fayetteville
Arthur Salomon, Ph.D., Brown University
Sean Taverna, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
Greg Wang, Ph.D., University of North Carolina
Michael Wang, M.D., MD Anderson Cancer Center
Michael Washburn, Ph.D., Stowers Institute for Medical Research
Andrew Xiao, Ph.D., Yale University
Qin Yan, Ph.D., Yale University
Daohong Zhou, M.D., University of Florida
The resources of the Proteomics Core are available to anyone at UAMS, and there are pilot funding opportunities available for Cancer Institute members.
Megan is a Ph.D. student in her 5th year in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department. She joined the laboratory of Dr. Robert Eoff for her research studies.
She has a B.S. in Biology with a dual minor in Chemistry and Psychology from Henderson State University.
My project involves elucidating various mechanisms that glioblastoma brain tumors use to tolerate, repair and ultimately survive chemotherapeutic intervention. We are most interested in investigating the alternate functions of the DNA damage tolerance polymerase kappa (hpol k) and how these responses aid in tumor survival. Overexpression of this polymerase has been linked to tumor recurrence and resistance to standard-of-care chemotherapeutics. Understanding the possible ways that hpol k promotes these outcomes could help develop more effective treatments for glioblastoma patients.
A fun fact about the Eoff lab is we are all left handed. We have this running joke that a requirement to join the lab is you must be left handed.
In all seriousness though I would say I have really enjoyed being part of the Biochemistry Department. I have built life-long friendships and have received tremendous support not only from my primary advisor but from many of the labs in this department. I like to joke that I am the department’s graduate student as I have pretty much gone to every lab at one time or another asking for experimental advice or to borrow reagents. My graduate school experience wouldn’t have been as successful if it was not for the faculty, postdocs and students that make up the Biochemistry Department.
Once I am finished with my PhD, I plan to pursue post-doctoral research in a lab focused on developing 3D tumor model systems. My long term goal is to conduct research using these model systems to help predict patient drug response, thereby opening up access to personalized chemotherapeutic treatments that are currently unavailable to most cancer patients.
I really enjoy immunofluorescence microscopy. I don’t think I will ever get tired of taking beautifully colored fluorescent images.
I enjoy spending time with family, friends and hiking with my dog Brain.
Bostian, A. C., Maddukuri, L. M., Reed, M. R., Savenka, T., Hartman, J. H., Davis, L., Pouncey, D.L., Miller, G.P., and Eoff, R. L. Kynurenine signaling increases DNA polymerase kappa and promotes genomic instability in glioblastoma cells. Chem. Res. Toxicol. 2016, 29(1): 101-8.
Byrd, A. K., Zybailov, B. L., Maddukuri, L., GAO, J., Marecki, J. C., Jaiswal, M., Bell, M. R., Griffin, W.C., Reed, M. R., Chib, S., Mackintosh, S. G., MacNicol, A. M., Baldini, G., Eoff, R. L., and Raney, K. D. Evidence that G-quadruplex DNA accumulates in the cytoplasm and participates in stress granule assembly in response to oxidative stress. J. Biol. Chem. 2016, 24(3): 432-36.
Zafar, M. K., Maddukuri, L., Ketkar, A., Penthala, N.R., Reed, M. R., Eddy, S., Crooks, P. A., and Eoff, R. L. A small-molecule inhibitor of human DNA polymerase h potentiates the effects of cisplatin in tumor cells. Biochemistry. 2018, 57(7): 1262-73.
West, K. L., Kelliher, J. L., Xu, Z., An, L., Reed, M. R., Eoff, R. L., Wang, J., Huen, M. S. Y., and Leung, J. W. C. LC8/DYNLL1 is a 53BP1 effector and regulates checkpoint activation. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019, 47(12): 6236-6249.
Ketkar, A., Maddukuri, L., Penthala, N. R., Reed, M. R., Zafar, M. K., Crooks, P. A., and Eoff, R. L. Inhibition of human DNA polymerases eta and kappa by indole-derived molecules occurs through distinct mechanisms. ACS Chem Biol. 2019, 14(6): 1337-1351.
Reed, M. R., Maddukuri, L., Ketkar, A., Byrum, S. D., Zafar, M. K., Bostian, A. C. L., Tackett, A. J., and Eoff, R. L. Inhibition of tryptophan-2,3-deoxygenate impairs DNA damage tolerance and repair in glioma cells. (In preparation)
U.S. Provisional Patent Application No.: 62/792,226
Title: Naphthoyl, napthalenylmethyl, and naphthalenysulfonyl indole aminoguanidine analogs as DNA polymerase kappa inhibitors targeting glioblastoma.
Inventors: Robert L. Eoff, Peter Crooks, Narsimha Penthala, Amit Ketkar, Leena Maddukuri, and Megan Reed
BV Reference No.: 2019-09
2017: First place overall, for poster presentation at UAMS Student Research Day
2017: First place, Bhuvan award for excellence in biochemistry
2020: First place overall, for poster presentation at UAMS Student Research Day
2020: Second place, Bhuvan award for excellence in biochemistry
Each year the editors of GSA journals select for distinction some of the year’s top scientific publications. Congratulations to Aaron Storey, Hsin-Ping Wang, Reine Protacio, Mari Davidson and Wayne Wahls. Their research article on Targeted Forward Genetics was featured in the GSA’s annual Spotlight: A showcase of research and scholarship in selected articles from 2019. The work was supported by a research project grant (GM081766) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences to Wayne Wahls.
Mari Davidson, Wesley Wahls, Reine Protacio, Wayne Wahls, Tresor Mukiza, Aaron Storey, Melissa Sorsby, Hsin-Ping Wang
GENETICS SOCIETY OF AMERICA EDITORS’ NOTE Storey et al. describe a powerful methodology for precisely-targeted, saturating mutational analyses of discrete chromosomal elements in situ. In this method, more than 100,000 independent allele replacements, distributed over long regions of the target locus, can be generated simultaneously in each experiment. The approach efficiently generates and identifies functionally-null and hypomorphic mutations throughout the targeted region. This process of population-scale, targeted forward genetics over large distances allows scientists to rapidly dissect the structure and function of specific chromosomal elements and their encoded factors under native, biologically relevant conditions.
From Dean Westfall’s Accolades – May 6, 2020
As face masks have become the norm on campus and beyond, it’s important to remember the faces behind the masks – the colleagues, friends and strangers whose days and circumstances may be more difficult than we know. It turns out there is something else behind many of these masks: a story of generosity.
Dr. Kevin Raney, Professor and Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, was surprised and grateful when Dr. Tung-chin Chiang, an Assistant Professor in the College of Public Health and research collaborator with Dr. Alan Tackett, dropped off fabric masks for everyone in his department.
Dr. Raney learned that Dr. Chiang and her family have donated thousands of masks worldwide – including over 1,000 at UAMS alone. Dr. Chiang and her husband, COPH Professor Dr. Joseph Su, have put in countless hours to the project at UAMS. Dr. Chiang and her sister Jenny, with help from other sisters in Taiwan, designed their masks and coordinated production and shipment to places with limited immediate access to masks. Their efforts are dedicated to their late father, Fong-chan Chiang, and in the hope of having an impact on reducing the spread of COVID-19.
“We hope everyone can wear masks together to bring down the curve worldwide!” Dr. Chiang wrote to Dr. Raney.
Perhaps you have received one of these masks – or one of many thousands of others that have been made or contributed by generous, resourceful and creative members of Team UAMS and the community. There are countless good folks on our Mask Brigade, and we are grateful for them all.
Dr. Chiang has a great idea for anyone who wants to give thanks for those contributing masks: Make a contribution of time or money to the UAMS Stocked and Reddie Food Pantry. I applaud this idea and encourage you to consider it.
The UAMS Translational Research Institute has selected three early-career UAMS researchers to receive KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Awards.
The KL2 program provides two years of research training to junior faculty. It provides 75 percent salary support and up to $25,000 per year for research, tuition, travel and education.
The awardees are:
Britni Ayers, Ph.D., assistant professor, College of Medicine, UAMS Northwest Regional Campus; “Exploring the Feasibility of a Group Prenatal Program, Kōmmour Prenatal, to Reduce Maternal and Infant Health Disparities among Marshallese Pacific Islander Women.”
Jure Baloh, Ph.D., M.H.A., assistant professor, Health Policy and Management, College of Public Health; “Adapting a Supervision Strategy for Sustaining Fidelity to Evidence-Based Practices in Substance Use Disorder Treatment Settings.”
Kimberly Stephens, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute (ACRI) Division/Center for Applied Research and Evaluation, Departments of Pediatrics and Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, College of Medicine; “Changes in Epigenetic Mechanisms and Symptom Clusters Associated with the Resolution of Persistent Pain following Spinal Cord Stimulation.”
The awardees were selected by a UAMS study section.
ProteoViz: a tool for the analysis and interactive visualization of phosphoproteomics data.
Storey AJ, Naceanceno KS, Lan RS, Washam CL, Orr LM, Mackintosh SG, Tackett AJ, Edmondson RD, Wang Z, Li HY, Frett B, Kendrick S, Byrum SD.
Mol Omics.
Elevation of the unfolded protein response increases RANKL expression.
Iyer S, Melendez-Suchi C, Han L, Baldini G, Almeida M, Jilka RL.
FASEB Bioadv.
Trentzsch M, Nyamugenda E, Miles TK, Griffin H, Russell S, Koss B, Cooney KA, Phelan KD, Tackett AJ, Iyer S, Boysen G, Baldini G.
Cell Death Discov. 2020
Butler TJ, Estep KN, Sommers JA, Maul RW, Moore AZ, Bandinelli S, Cucca F, Tuke MA, Wood AR, Bharti SK, Bogenhagen DF, Yakubovskaya E, Garcia-Diaz M, Guilliam TA, Byrd AK, Raney KD, Doherty AJ, Ferrucci L, Schlessinger D, Ding J, Brosh RM.
Hum Mol Genet.
Utility of histone H3K27me3 and H4K20me as diagnostic indicators of melanoma.
Davis LE, Shalin SC, Tackett AJ.
Melanoma Res.
Urbaniak A, Jousheghany F, Piña-Oviedo S, Yuan Y, Majcher-Uchańska U, Klejborowska G, Moorjani A, Monzavi-Karbassi B, Huczyński A, Chambers TC.
J Biochem Mol Toxicol.
Sex-Specific Effects of Dietary Methionine Restriction on the Intestinal Microbiome.
Wallis KF, Melnyk SB, Miousse IR.
Nutrients.
