News

Kevin Raney awarded Odyssey Medal

We’re delighted to share the exciting news that Kevin D. Raney, Ph.D., Professor & Chair of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology has been honored with the 2023 Odyssey Medal from Hendrix College. These awards, presented by the Board of Trustees, recognize individuals whose life achievements that reflect the essence of the Hendrix Odyssey program, with a particular focus on accomplishments in various categories, including research.

In recognition of Dr. Raney’s outstanding contributions, he was presented with his medal at a luncheon and recognized at a special reception held on October 26, 2023. We warmly invite you to join us in congratulating Dr. Raney for this well-deserved recognition.

Jessica Lynn Kelliher

I am a 4th year student in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Education

Arkansas Tech University – Bachelor of Science in Biology, Bachelor of Arts in Music, Minor in Chemistry

Research

My graduate work aims to expand current knowledge on the regulation of the double stranded break response. Specifically, I study the histone H2AX and how it interacts with downstream components of the DNA damage response. Recently, I have been working to characterize a non-canonical mechanism of 53BP1 recruitment to sites of DNA damage which we found is mediated by the H2AX C-terminal linker region.

Notable about her time as a Graduate

I have been fortunate to attend multiple scientific conferences during my graduate studies. Before the conferences, I was so nervous about presenting at the poster sessions. However, once I got started, I realized that poster sessions are a lot of fun. It’s a great way to meet other scientists that are interested in your work, get input and new ideas, and geek out. So now, I look forward to presenting at poster sessions and getting to discuss my research with new people in a relaxed setting.

Career Goals

Once I obtain my PhD I will continue to pursue a career in cancer research.

Experiment or Technique most like to do

One of my favorite techniques in the lab is cloning. Prior to and during my graduate studies, I did a lot of synthetic biology to develop plasmids for my projects. I really enjoy piecing things together or changing sequences to make something entirely new.

Fun Facts

I do MMA and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and I have a black belt in Taekwondo. While I don’t practice as much as I used to (life is busy), I still spend many evenings wrestling my two- and four-year-old.

Publications

Lee SO, Kelliher JL, Song W, Tengler K, Sarkar A, Dray E, Leung JWC. UBA80 and UBA52 fine-tune RNF168-dependent histone ubiquitination and DNA repair. J Biol Chem. 2023 Jul 12;:105043. doi: 10.1016/j.jbc.2023.105043. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 37451480.
Kelliher J, Ghosal G, Leung JWC. New answers to the old RIDDLE: RNF168 and the DNA damage response pathway. FEBS J. 2021 Apr 2;. doi: 10.1111/febs.15857. Review. PubMed PMID: 33797206; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8486888.
Kelliher JL, West KL, Gong Q, Leung JWC. Histone H2A variants alpha1-extension helix directs RNF168-mediated ubiquitination. Nat Commun. 2020 May 18;11(1):2462. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16307-4. PubMed PMID: 32424115; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7235047.
Pont MJ, Hill T, Cole GO, Abbott JJ, Kelliher J, Salter AI, Hudecek M, Comstock ML, Rajan A, Patel BKR, Voutsinas JM, Wu Q, Liu L, Cowan AJ, Wood BL, Green DJ, Riddell SR. γ-Secretase inhibition increases efficacy of BCMA-specific chimeric antigen receptor T cells in multiple myeloma. Blood. 2019 Nov 7;134(19):1585-1597. doi: 10.1182/blood.2019000050. PubMed PMID: 31558469; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6871311.
West KL, Kelliher JL, Xu Z, An L, Reed MR, Eoff RL, Wang J, Huen MSY, Leung JWC. LC8/DYNLL1 is a 53BP1 effector and regulates checkpoint activation. Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Jul 9;47(12):6236-6249. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkz263. PubMed PMID: 30982887; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6614850.

Awards

2022 – Awarded a $1500 travel grant through the WPRCI Cancer Research Training and Education Core

2023 – Awarded a $5161 Voucher through the WPRCI Shared Resource Voucher Program

2023 – Received 1^st place for the Bhuvan Award for Excellence in Biochemistry Research at UAMS Student Research Day

2023 – Received award for Best Graduate Student Poster at the WPRCI Cancer Institute Retreat

Mohammad Rahman Awarded Grant for Breast Cancer Research

Mohammad Rahman, Ph.D. was awarded a grant from the Arkansas Breast Cancer Research Program for his project, “Manipulating RNA Splicing as a Targeted Therapeutic Approach in Breast Cancer.” Dr. Rahman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a member of the Cancer Biology Research Program of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.

How Social Media can Enhance Your Career

Alicja Urbaniak, Ph.D., will be presenting, “Trending in Science: How Social Media Can Enhance Your Career,” on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 1-2 p.m.

Dr. Urbaniak is a KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award scholar and an instructor in the College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She is also an associate member of the Winthrop. P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. Her research focuses on investigating the activity of compounds of natural origin and their derivatives as anti-cancer agents.

Dr. Urbaniak serves as an executive committee member and secretary of the Division for Drug Discovery and Development of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), and she is a member of the Partnerships Committee. Additionally, she is an editorial board member of the Journal of Biochemical and Molecular Toxicology.

Congratulations Dr. Wang

Congratulations to Xiuqi “Michael” Wang on the successful defense of his dissertation entitled, “Discovery of Imidazopyridine Analogs as FLT3-ITD Secondary Mutant Inhibitors for the Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia.” Dr. Wang was mentored by Dr. Hongyu Li and will be beginning a postdoctoral position in Dr. Jun Qi’s lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School.

September 2023 Publications

Increased Response to Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors with Dietary Methionine Restriction in a Colorectal Cancer Model.
Morehead LC, Garg S, Wallis KF, Simoes CC, Siegel ER, Tackett AJ, Miousse IR.
Cancers (Basel). 2023

Biotransformation research advances – 2022 year in review.
Khojasteh SC, Argikar UA, Cheruzel L, Cho S, Crouch RD, Dhaware D, Heck CJS, Johnson KM, Kalgutkar AS, King L, Liu J, Ma B, Maw H, Miller GP, Seneviratne HK, Takahashi RH, Wang S, Wei C, Jackson KD.
Drug Metab Rev. 2023

UAMS Biochemistry Alum Speaks About Careers in Government Research

Dustyn Barnette, Ph.D., is a 2021 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology graduate. He returned to speak about career opportunities in government research.

Kanishka Manna Wins Poster Award at SE IDeA Meeting

Congratulations to Kanishka Manna, a graduate student in the lab of Stephanie Byrum, Ph.D., who won second place in the Bioinformatics Division at the SE IDeA meeting in Columbia, SC. His poster title was, “A novel proteogenomics workflow for proteoforms detection.”

Xiuqi Wang

I just started my sixth year in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Ph.D. program and will graduate in October.

Education

China Pharmaceutical University, B.S. in Pharmacy (Basic Pharmacy).

Research

I have two research interests: 1) Discovery and optimization of novel inhibitors of clinically relevant targets 2) PROTAC and its applications. I have been working on multiple research projects within these research scopes.

I’m currently working on my dissertation thesis based on one of the projects, titled: Identification of Imidazo[1,2 a]pyridine pyridine derivatives as FLT3 kinase inhibitors for potential treatments of acute myeloid leukemia.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematologic cancer characterized by proliferative, clonal, abnormally differentiated, and occasionally poorly differentiated cells. Activating mutations in FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) are the most frequent genetic alteration in AML, found in approximately 30% of newly diagnosed cases, most commonly consisting of internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations in the juxtamembrane region. Recently, several FLT3 inhibitors have demonstrated clinical activity and three are currently approved – midostaurin, quizartinib, and gilteritinib. However, their clinical efficacies are limited in part due to the emergence of secondary clinical resistance, caused by multiple mechanism including on-target FLT3 secondary mutations – FLT3-ITD/D835Y and FLT3-ITD/F691L being the most common, as well as the off-target activation of alternative pathways including the BCR-ABL pathway. Therefore, in order to overcome drug resistance and further improve outcomes, new compounds targeting FLT3-ITD with secondary mutants are urgently needed. In my works, three compounds were identified with potent anti-leukemic effects, and may be further developed for treatment of AML.

Notable about his time as a Graduate

Throughout my Ph.D. periods, I got to know that research is never a solitary work. It requires frequent communication and close collaboration to get the work done.

Career Goals

I will seek postdoc training after my Ph.D. I have already accepted the postdoc offer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, working with Dr. Jun Qi. My vision for my future career is to take on the academic path and be an independent principal investigator after the postdoc training.

Experiment or technique you would most like to do (could be something you enjoy doing or something you have never done but would like to get the opportunity to do)

I like the design and synthesis of new compounds because there is a sense of satisfaction in creating something new.

Fun Fact about Xiuqi

I like hiking and exploring nature.

Research Induction Ceremony

2023 white coat recipients and their mentors — Dr. Marie Burdine, Randall Rainwater, Mason McCrury, Dr. Samantha Kendrick, Reham Sewilam, Dr. Robert Eoff

Doctor of Philosophy students who passed their candidacy exams in the last year received their white coats at the Graduate School Research Induction Ceremony. Students from the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Track who received their white coats were Reham Sewilam, mentored by Robert Eoff, Ph.D., Mason McCrury, mentored by Samantha Kendrick, Ph.D., and Randall Rainwater, mentored by Marie Burdine, Ph.D. Congratulations to all!