Dr. Robett Eoff and Dr. Samantha Kendrick received medical research endowment awards from the UAMS Foundation Fund Board. Dr. Eoff’s project is to study inhibitors of DNA polymerase kappa, and Dr. Kendrick’s project is to study DNA secondary structures as new therapeutic targets for aggressive lymphoma. Congratulations to Drs. Eoff and Kendrick!
Congratulations to the Chambers lab for their recent publication of two manuscripts.
Synthesis, antiproliferative activity and molecular docking of thiocolchicine urethanes
U Majcher, A Urbaniak, E May, M Moshari, M Delgado, J Wietrzyk, F Barti, T Chambers, J Tuszynski, A Huczynski
Microtubules play an essential role in the survival of primary acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells advancing through G1 phase
Magdalena Delgado & Timothy C. Chambers
Congratulations to the Miller lab on their recent publication.
Dustyn A. Barnette, Mary A. Davis, Na L. Dang, Anirudh S. Pidugu, Tyler Hughes, S. Joshua Swamidass, Gunnar Boysen, and Grover P. Miller
Congratulations to the Raney lab on their recent manuscript.
Pif1 helicase unfolding of G-quadruplex DNA is highly dependent on sequence and reaction conditions.
Alicia K. Byrd, Matthew R. Bell, and Kevin D. Raney
Karen Abbott has been awarded a new NIH grant totaling over 3 million dollars to translate new glycan biomarkers to the clinic for ovarian cancer.
Isabelle Racine Miousse, Ph.D., has joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as an Assistant Professor. Dr. Miousse received her doctorate from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cancer epigenetics in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at UAMS. Dr. Miousse’s research focuses on methyl donors during cancer progression and treatment.
Science can lead you to some unexpected places.
Just ask Aime Franco, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Physiology and Biophysics, who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at 22 but never expected to make a career out of researching it.
Franco gave the keynote talk July 25 to the students, mentors, administrators and guests gathered for the seventh annual Central Arkansas Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium. She initially wanted to be a physician, but then her training led down a different path. She started in sports medicine, then nutrition science and H. pylori research before circling around to thyroid cancer. In 2018, her research efforts paid off through a four-year $791,000 grant award from the National Cancer Institute to support her work.
“I never wanted to investigate the disease that I had,” Franco said. “There’s an element of ignorance is bliss and there are probably some things you just don’t want to know. But I think it has totally and completely enriched my experience in my research because I have a different perspective — that of a patient.”
Franco capped off the all-day symposium showcasing undergraduate research across the state of Arkansas where research careers like hers tend to take off. Students present their work with posters and oral presentations. About 120 students attended the event, with about 100 of them presenting their work. Their faculty research mentors as well as summer program administrators, poster judges and members of the public joined them for the event, for a total of about 250.
The focus on Franco’s story was intentional, said Grover P. Miller, Ph.D., a professor in the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department in the College of Medicine. He has been co-directing the symposium with his department chair, Kevin D. Raney, Ph.D., for the past seven years.
“We like to pick someone who has gone through a journey to get where they are,” Miller said. “Linear careers are a thing of the past. Today’s science field is dynamic, ever changing, and people take different paths. We want the students to think about how their research experience might be a step along their path, even if bench research isn’t where their career ultimately takes them.”
A deeper understanding of science – and a strengthening of science communication skills, specifically – benefits both the students and society, Miller said.
“Science inundates a lot of our decision-making process as a society, but the people making those decisions don’t always have a background in scientific thinking,” Miller said. “It’s on us as scientists or science-backed thinkers to become better at communicating with leadership and the public at large.”
Lessons like that weren’t lost on Alexis Baker, a student from Hendrix College who attended with Sydnee Curry, who was presenting a poster on their biochemistry research on pain-sensing neurons.
“A big part of the experience of coming to events like these is the experience of being in a scientific setting and practicing communication,” Baker said. “We’re building up, going to bigger and bigger conferences. I want someday to apply for med school, so to practice being comfortable talking about science with scientists is even important for something like my med school entrance interviews.”
Kamille Willis from the University of Miami was another poster presenter, who spent the summer doing research at the National Center for Toxicological Research in Jefferson, Arkansas. She helped develop a flow cytometry assay to analyze antibodies against polyethylene glycol. She said that the symposium and events like it teach students to not only communicate, but to listen to questions and feedback.
“The first time it happens, it is a little difficult, but you have to get used to it. They’re not saying it to knock you down,” Willis said. “You have to learn to come from the perspective, ‘well, maybe I really didn’t consider that’ or ‘maybe that would be a good idea.’ Everyone here is looking to help you and better your research, and being part of that dialog is part of learning to be a scientist.”
In addition, Miller said another important benefit of the event is that it showcases just how much excellent work is being done in Arkansas and the support that makes it possible.
“We are a small state, but we have some great science here,” Miller said.
Franco agreed, and referenced the quality of the work in her closing remarks to the students.
“Although I’m fine with the path I took – I think each of our journeys lead us to where we need to be — I will say that I think you guys are so lucky to have an opportunity to do research of this quality at the undergraduate level and I really am in awe of what you have been able to accomplish and the work I’ve seen from you here today.”
The event was held in the I. Dodd Wilson Education Building and hosted by the Graduate School and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UAMS as well as the National Institutes of Health-supported INBRE program and the UAMS Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) to Increase Diversity in Research.
By Amy Widner| August 3rd, 2018|
Dr. Karaduta was awarded with the Travel Award from American Heart Association to visit the BCVS 2018 Scientific Sessions in San Antonio, TX, where he presented a poster “Possible Influence of Resistant Starch diet on atherosclerosis in the presence of chronic kidney disease”
Two Ph.D. students in the spring graduating class of the UAMS Graduate School have accepted positions at Emory University in Atlanta to continue their postdoctoral work.
“They will join other UAMS alumni at Emory for us to have a strong presence there,” said Robert E. McGehee Jr., Ph.D., dean of the UAMS Graduate School. “We’re proud of the accomplishments of these students and look forward to following the course of their promising careers.”
Kimberly Cooney completed the Graduate Program in Interdisciplinary Biomedical Sciences program at UAMS and participated in the Initiative for Maximizing Student Development(IMSD) program, which aims to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups graduating with doctorates in the biomedical sciences.
At Emory University, she’ll be working in the College of Medicine studying cardiovascular disease and its role in upregulating inflammatory signaling pathways. During her tenure at UAMS, she was mentored by Giulia Baldini, M.D., Ph.D., where her studies focused on the function and trafficking of the Melanocortin-4 Receptor, a receptor that influences appetite regulation and energy expenditure. That experience helped her discover her passion for obesity research and other areas that can directly impact her community.
“I can see the work I did at UAMS translating later and I want to continue doing relevant research, particularly in areas of health disparities,” Cooney said.
Cooney’s ultimate career goal is to establish a lab, possibly in an academic setting, that focuses on clinical research while mentoring other minority students in STEM areas.
Johnasha Stuart, who is also an IMSD scholar, conducted her graduate studies and training in the Microbiology and Immunology Department with Karl Boehme, Ph.D., at UAMS. At Emory, she will be working with Arash Grakoui, Ph.D., on Hepatitis C virus pathogenesis and its involvement with the immune system and how contribution to liver disease.
“At UAMS, I have already had the experience of working in a virology lab, which has given me a good basis for my next step,” Stuart said.
Stuart also credited the Graduate Student Teachers of Central Arkansas for providing her with opportunities to advance her teaching experience and achieve her career goals.
“My goal is to become an independent researcher and educator so that I can use my research as a platform to educate and encourage students to pursue careers in biomedical research,” Stuart said.
By Amy Widner | June 11th, 2018 |
Kimberly Cooney, Ph.D., Trey Lowry, M.D./Ph.D., Kirk West, Ph.D., and Wezley Griffin, Ph.D. after graduation on May 21, 2018 at Verizon Arena.
Kimberly Cooney, Ph.D. Major Advidor: Giulia Baldini, M.D.,Ph.D. Currently a post-doc at Emory University
Wezley Griffin, Ph.D. Major Advisor: Kevin Raney, Ph.D. Currently a post-doc at Baylor University
Kirk West, Ph.D. Major Advisor: Alan Tackett, Ph.D. Currently a post-doc at UAMS
Dr. Karaduta from Dr. Zybaylov’s lab received travel scholarship to represent UAMS at International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography meeting in Riva del Garda, Italy. During the section dedicated to Mass Spectrometry he presented a poster “Evaluation of Resistant Starch action on microbiome in 5/6 nephrectomy model of Chronic Kidney Disease”.
Brian Koss is the official winner of Miltenyi Biotec’s Immuno-Oncology Innovation Award! There were well over 100 applicants for the award, but Brian’s abstract and scientific endeavors stood out amongst the rest. Brian received paid registration, airfare and hotel accommodations to this year’s American Association for Cancer Research conference in Chicago, as well as 2000 euros worth of reagents to help advance his research
Brian Koss is a third year PhD student working in the laboratory of Dr. Alan Tackett. Brian’s research focuses on identifying new approaches to combat the metabolic suppression of an immune response in solid tumors. More specifically, Brian’s works aims to mechanistically define epigenetically controlled metabolic stress responses during tumor infiltration. The identification of these mechanisms and demonstration of proof of principle therapies will set the stage for the next generation of cellular therapies.
