Congratulations to Pulaski Academy high school students Nyera Ali and Akshara Chevireddy and their University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences mentor, Dr. Reine Protacio.  The results of their project on precise genome editing were presented (and won several awards) in 2025 at the 43^rd annual Central Arkansas Regional Science and Engineering Fair, the 71^st annual Arkansas State Science and Engineering Fair, and the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair.  The discoveries have now been published in a peer-reviewed scientific paper entitled “Long multiply marked DNA repair template reveals lengths and fidelity of genome editing tracts in Schizosaccharomyces pombe” in the journal microPublication Biology.

Akshara and Nyera conducted their award-winning research in the laboratory of Professor Wayne Wahls in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UAMS.  This research and training opportunity was supported in part by a research project grant to Dr. Wahls from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health (grant number NIH R01 GM145834).

Multimodal reprogramming of the tumor microenvironment by MMR and dual checkpoint blockade in hepatocellular carcinoma models.
Tesfay MZ, Cios A, Ferdous KU, Shelton RS, Mustafa B, Simoes CC, Gokden M, Miousse IR, Krager KJ, Boerma M, Urbaniak A, Kunthur A, Obulareddy S, Eichhorn JM, Post SR, Chamcheu JC, Moaven O, Chabu CY, Duda DG, Conti M, Nardo B, Govindarajan R, Fernandez-Zapico ME, Roberts LR, Borad MJ, Cannon MJ, Basnakian AG, Nagalo BM.
Front Immunol. 2025

Bromodomain proteins IBD1 and IBD2 link histone acetylation to SWR1- and INO80-mediated H2A.Z regulation in Tetrahymena.
Garg J, Saettone A, Nabeel-Shah S, Dang S, Khalid AH, Loehr J, Petrova A, Burns JD, Karabatsos P, Shibin S, Wahab S, Taverna SD, Greenblatt JF, Lambert JP, Fillingham J.
Epigenetics Chromatin. 2025

Isabelle R. Miousse, Ph.D., received an award from the National Institutes of Health.

Title: Methionine metabolism in the acute response to radiation in the gut

Period: 08/25/2025 – 07/31/2027

Total: $153,000 (Year 1)

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Grover Miller, Ph.D., received an award from the National Institutes of Health.

Title: Novel metabolic pathway for halogenated drugs of abuse

Period: 09/01/2025 – 08/31/2027

Total: $76,500 (Year 1)

Emory is a rising fourth year Ph.D. student in Professor Wayne Wahls’ laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at UAMS.  She recently made her first presentation to a major scientific conference, the 12^th International Fission Yeast Meeting, which was held in Boston, Massachusetts from August 3^rd to 8^th, 2025.  This symposium is convened every two years and rotates between venues in Europe, Asia, and America.  It is the flagship conference for over 1,000 experts from approximately 200 laboratories world-wide who use the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe as a model organism.  Emory presented her first-author study about histone methyltransferases and was co-author, with Reine Protacio, Mari Davidson and Wayne Wahls, on two additional presentations about regulatory DNA sites and chromatin remodeling.

By Tamara Robinson

Aug. 1, 2025 | Sydnye Shuttleworth, a student in the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine and an affiliate trainee member of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship award for aspiring physician-scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Shuttleworth, who is pursuing a doctoral degree in the UAMS Graduate School in addition to a medical degree, is the first M.D./Ph.D. student at UAMS to receive the highly competitive Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the NCI. She joins an elite group across the country and a small group from UAMS who have received NRSA awards from one of the NIH institutes.

The $189,128 award, referred to as an F30 NRSA fellowship, provides four years of funding for Shuttleworth’s tuition, a stipend and an institutional allowance to support her research training.

“Ms. Shuttleworth’s NRSA fellowship is focused on the rapidly expanding field of engineering immune cells to be more effective and efficient at eliminating cancer cells, particularly those in solid tumors,” said Alan Tackett, Ph.D., deputy director of the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and executive associate dean for basic research in the UAMS College of Medicine. “This specific area of research has the potential to transform how we utilize immunotherapies to treat patients with cancer.”

“Sydnye is one of those trainees who just doesn’t let up — in the best way,” said Shuttleworth’s mentor, Brian Koss, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. “She is driven, deeply committed, and always thinking about how her work can make a real impact. That kind of focus is exactly what you want in a future physician-scientist, and it’s no surprise she has already earned competitive funding to support her research. She raises the bar for everyone around her, including me.”

Read more about Sydnye.

Untargeted CUT&Tag reads are enriched at accessible chromatin and restrict identification of potential G4-forming sequences in G4-targeted CUT&Tag experiments.
Thompson MD, Byrd AK.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2025

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G-quadruplex and i-motif DNA structures form in the promoter of the key innate immune adaptor MYD88.
Brown S, Swafford K, McCrury M, Nasrin F, Gragg CQ, Chavan A, Roy Choudhury S, Dickerhoff J, Yang D, Kendrick S.
Cell Rep Phys Sci. 2025

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Monensin and Its Analogs Exhibit Activity Against Breast Cancer Stem-Like Cells in an Organoid Model.
Urbaniak A, Heflin B, Siegel E, Reed MR, Nix JS, Yee EU, Jędrzejczyk M, Klejborowska G, Stępczyńska N, Huczyński A, Nagalo MB, Chambers TC, Post S, Eoff RL, MacNicol MC, Tiwari AK, Kelly T, Tackett AJ, MacNicol AM.
bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2025

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The XPO1 Inhibitor Eltanexor Modulates the Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathway to Reduce Colorectal Cancer Tumorigenesis.
Evans AE, Afroz S, Magstadt A, Kasi A, Dixon DA.
Cancer Res Commun. 2025

EZH2 loss during metabolic stress drives restoration of MHC class I machinery in melanoma.
Edmondson JL, Reed MR, Fil D, Heflin B, McKinnon A, Bauer MA, Morehead LC, Avaritt NL, Phillips M, Taverna SD, Tackett AJ, Koss B.
iScience. 2025

Congratulations to Matthew Thompson, Ph.D., on his successful defense of his dissertation entitled, “DNA Helicase B (HELB) and DNA secondary structures at the DNA replication fork.” Dr. Thompson was mentored by Alicia Byrd, Ph.D. He will be an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Lyon College this fall.

Rare SNP in the HELB gene interferes with RPA interaction and cellular function of HELB.
Osei B, May BH, Beard JS, Thompson MD, Alkam D, Zafar MK, Bergstrom E, Byrum SD, Enemark EJ, West KL, Byrd AK.
NAR Mol Med. 2025

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Structure of the Saccharolobus solfataricus GINS tetramer.
Shankar S, Enemark EJ.
Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun. 2025

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A post-assembly conformational change makes the SARS-CoV-2 polymerase elongation-competent.
Klein M, Das A, Bera SC, Anderson TK, Kocincova D, Lee HW, Wang B, Papini FS, Marecki JC, Arnold JJ, Cameron CE, Raney KD, Artsimovitch I, Götte M, Kirchdoerfer RN, Depken M, Dulin D.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2025

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Stress During Lactation: A Hidden Link to Offspring Bone Health.
Chandrashekar R, Mulakala BK, Gurung M, Venna G, Rearick JR, Onyekweli B, Ruebel ML, Dada-Fox J, Zeledon JA, Talatala R, Rodriguez K, Osborn LR, Bishop MG, Smith B, Stephens KE, Lucas EA, Yeruva L.
Calcif Tissue Int. 2025

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Biomolecular condensates control and are defined by RNA-RNA interactions that arise in viral replication.
Aierken D, Zhang V, Sealfon R, Marecki JC, Raney KD, Gladfelter AS, Joseph JA, Roden CA.
Res Sq [Preprint]. 2025