DNA secondary structures in BCL2 and MYC elicit activation-induced cytidine deaminase binding and activity.
McCrury M, Sanchez A, Mangold R, Spears TJ, Doshier C, Buisson R, Miah M, Akdeniz D, Kendrick S.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2026

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Mitochondrial antioxidant enzyme (SOD2) at the crossroads of redox signaling and cancer progression.
Islam MR, Alam R, Islam F, Nagar P, Rahman MA.
Free Radic Res. 2026

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Archaeal and eukaryotic MCM rings sequentially melt DNA for replication initiation.
Rasouli S, Myasnikov A, Enemark EJ.
Nat Commun. 2026

Congratulations to all of the students and postdocs who won awards at UAMS’ 2026 Student Research Day. The Bhuvan Award for outstanding research using Biochemistry is given in honor of former Biochemistry and Molecular Biology department faculty member, Dr. Bhuvanasvaren.

Bhuvan Award recipients:

• Md. Mahbub Hasan, a second year PhD student in the BMCB track mentored by Dr. Mohammad Rahman won 1st place.
• Christian Mitchell, a third year PhD student in the PTET track mentored by Dr. Abdel Fouda won 2nd place.
• Anisha Neupane, a PhD student in the CBP track mentored by Dr. Ryan Allen won 3rd place.

Graduate Student Division award recipients:

• Md. Mahbub Hasan, a PhD student mentored by Dr. Mohammad Rahman won 1st place.
• Sydnye Shuttleworth, a MD/PhD student mentored by Dr. Brian Koss, won 3rd place.

Best Graduate Student Cancer Research awards recipients:

• Sydnye Shuttleworth, a MD/PhD student mentored by Dr. Brian Koss, won 1st place.
• Katherine Cruz, a PhD student mentored by Dr. Brian Koss, won 3rd place.

Postdoc and Housestaff Division award recipient:

Dr. Md Rafikul Islam in Dr. Mohammad Rahman’s lab won 1st place. He also won an award for Innovation from Bioventures.

Professional Student Division award recipients:

• Jed Johnson, a MD student mentored by Dr. Grover Miller.
• Reese Forrest, a MD/PhD student mentored by Dr. Robert Eoff.

3MT award winner:

• Katherine Cruz , a PhD student mentored by Dr. Brian Koss, won 1st place.

Rnd3 regulates lung cancer cell invasion and migration independently of ROCK1 signaling via alpha 5 integrin modulation.
Garcia Garcia N, Nguyen THV, Richey D, Cox EF, Coca Juaristi J, Ashby C, Rodriguez A, Ryan KR.
Life Sci Alliance. 2026

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Proteostasis sustains T cell differentiation potential and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte function.
Scharping NE, Ge X, Matias MI, Jiang F, Cafferata A, Heeg M, Monell A, Galletti G, Cheung KP, Rock A, Thao N, Shuttleworth SL, Bauer MA, Takehara KK, Ferry A, Quon S, Koss B, Myers SA, Bennett EJ, Goldrath AW.
bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2026

SUMOylation Protects Endothelial Cell-Expressed Leukocyte-Specific Protein 1 from Ubiquitination-Mediated Proteasomal Degradation and Facilitates Its Nuclear Export.
Hossain M, Huang J, Su Y, Islam MR, Rahman MA, Cayabyab FS, Liu L.
Int J Mol Sci. 2026

Targeting EZH2 Oncogenic Splicing: Decoding the Regulatory Network and Antisense Correction.
Islam MR, Nagar P, McNaughton N, Heeamoni SA, Hasan MM, Kandel S, Tsakiroglou P, Dalton WB, Abdel-Wahab O, Krainer AR, Rahman MA.
bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2026

DNA-PKcs controls the cytotoxic T cell response to cancer and transplant allograft through regulating LAT-dependent signaling.
Rainwater RR, Azevedo-Pouly AC, Waldrip ZJ, Hicks BH, Callais NA, Koss B, Storey AJ, Burdine L, Burdine MS.
Cell Rep. 2026

Response to the commentary by Melidis et al. on “Untargeted CUT&Tag reads are enriched at accessible chromatin and restrict identification of potential G4-forming sequences in G4-targeted CUT&Tag experiments”.
Byrd AK, Thompson MD.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2025

Long multiply marked DNA repair template reveals lengths and fidelity of genome editing tracts in Schizosaccharomyces pombe.
Protacio RU, Ali NA, Chevireddy A, Wahls WP.
MicroPubl Biol. 2025

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Evaluation of the Activity of Monensin and Its Analogs for Modulation of Stem-like Cell Functionality in 2D and 3D Breast Cancer Models.
Urbaniak A, Heflin B, Siegel ER, Seale D, Reed MR, Nix JS, Yee EU, Jędrzejczyk M, Klejborowska G, Stępczyńska N, Huczyński A, Nagalo BM, Chambers TC, Post SR, Eoff RL, MacNicol MC, Tiwari AK, Kelly T, Tackett AJ, MacNicol AM.
ACS Pharmacol Transl Sci. 2025

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Template switching by coronavirus polymerase requires helicase activity and is stimulated by remdesivir and molnupiravir.
Rakib A, Das A, Bera SC, America PPB, Klein M, Anderson TK, Marecki JC, Wang B, Bogers E, Feng JY, Bilello JP, Papini FS, Smitskamp Q, Arnold JJ, Artsimovitch I, Kirchdoerfer RN, Cameron CE, Raney KD, Dulin D.
bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2025

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Desloratadine Induces TP53-Dependent Apoptosis in MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells.
Kabir SR, Abdullah T, Azam G, Molla TH, Ali H, Miah M, Alam MT, Miah S.
Cells. 2025

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Global Mapping of Combinatorial Chromatin Regulatory Events Using Hi-Plex CUT&Tag.
Liao Y, Zhou W, Jiang MZ, Yu K, Wang ZJ, Drummond T, Ding M, Zhao Y, Pino I, Taverna SD, Ji H, Zhu H.
bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2025

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Anthrax toxins exacerbate sepsis-induced coagulopathy and endothelial dysfunction in a baboon model of anthrax.
Keshari RS, Silasi R, Byrum SD, Popescu NI, Regmi G, Abe T, Lupu C, Georgescu C, Taylor VE, Province D, Edmondson RD, Mackintosh SG, Avaritt NL, Kovats S, Farris AD, Simmons JH, McCarty OJT, Tackett AJ, Lupu F.
J Thromb Haemost. 2025

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Post-transcriptional regulation by HuR in colorectal cancer: impacts on tumor progression and therapeutic strategies.
Shi Y, Zhou Z, Liu C, Liu J, Xie M, Chen X, Dixon DA, Wu X, Yang L.
Front Immunol. 2025

Congratulations to 2025 SURF students Naomi McNaughton and Anna Bolding on their excellent presentations of their research at the Arkansas INBRE Research Conference. Naomi won second place in the biology division for her presentation of the research she performed in lab of Mohammad Rahman, Ph.D. and Anna received honorable mention for her presentation of the research she performed in the lab or Brian Koss, Ph.D.

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 43rd annual Central Arkansas Regional Science and Engineering Fair, the 71st 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