Mohamad Rahman, Ph.D., joined the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology as an Assistant Professor in August 2021. Find out more about him with this Q&A.

• Where are you from and what do you miss most? I am from Bangladesh. I miss my childhood. I wish I could go back to my middle school and meet my friends.

• Fun fact about yourself. I wanted to serve as a fighter pilot in the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF). I was rejected during my enrolment as a cadet in the BAF due to my compromised eye power. Then I became a biologist. Now I feel fortunate for my rejection from the BAF, which allowed me to explore the fascinating mysteries and fun of biology.

• What is your favorite place you’ve lived? I completed my undergraduate education in Bangladesh. I moved to Nagoya in Japan for my Ph.D., and stayed there for six years. Then I moved to New York, and stayed there six years more for my Postdoctoral training, prior to my moving in Little Rock. So far, Nagoya is the most favorite place I have ever lived.

• What place you would like to visit? I would like to visit Melbourne.

• Do you like to cook? What is your favorite recipe? I love to cook. I enjoy cooking South Asian cuisines. My favorite recipe is Mutton Biryani.

• What is your favorite food? I love hot and spicy foods. My most favorite food is Mutton Biryani.

• What is your favorite sport? My favorite sport is cricket.

• What is your favorite movie? My favorite movie is “3 Idiots”, Directed by RajKumar Hirani.

• What is your favorite song or band/singer? My favorite band is Little River Band (LRB) in Bangladesh.

• Name something on your bucket list? A family trip to Europe

• Do you have any hobbies outside of work? I love to watch movies

Targeting Rearranged during Transfection in Cancer: A Perspective on Small-Molecule Inhibitors and Their Clinical Development.
Saha D, Ryan KR, Lakkaniga NR, Acharya B, Garcia NG, Smith EL, Frett B.
J Med Chem. 2021

Discovery of imidazo[1,2-a]pyridine-thiophene derivatives as FLT3 and FLT3 mutants inhibitors for acute myeloid leukemia through structure-based optimization of an NEK2 inhibitor.
Zhang L, Lakkaniga NR, Bharate JB, Mcconnell N, Wang X, Kharbanda A, Leung Y-K, Frett B, Sha NP, Li H-Y.
Eru J Med Chem. 2021

Chemotherapy with or without avelumab followed by avelumab maintenance versus chemotherapy alone in patients with previously untreated epithelial ovarian cancer (JAVELIN Ovarian 100): an open-label, randomised, phase 3 trial.
Monk BJ, Colombo N, Oza AM, Fujiwara K, Birrer MJ, Randall L, Poddubskaya EV, Scambia G, Shparyk YV, Lim MC, Bhoola SM, Sohn J, Yonemori K, Stewart RA, Zhang X, Perkins Smith J, Linn C, Ledermann JA.
Lancet Oncol. 2021

4-Methyl-1,2,3-Triazoles as N-Acetyl-Lysine Mimics Afford Potent BET Bromodomain Inhibitors with Improved Selectivity.
Cui H, Carlson AS, Schleiff MA, Divakaran A, Johnson JA, Buchholz CR, Zahid H, Vail NR, Shi K, Aihara H, Harki DA, Miller GP, Topczewski JJ, Pomerantz WCK.
J Med Chem. 2021

Machine learning liver-injuring drug interactions with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) from a retrospective electronic health record (EHR) cohort.
Datta A, Flynn NR, Barnette DA, Woeltje KF, Miller GP, Swamidass SJ.
PLoS Comput Biol. 2021

Bioactivation of Isoxazole-Containing Bromodomain and Extra-Terminal Domain (BET) Inhibitors.
Flynn NR, Ward MD, Schleiff MA, Laurin CMC, Farmer R, Conway SJ, Boysen G, Swamidass SJ, Miller GP.
Metabolites. 2021

G-quadruplex DNA inhibits unwinding activity but promotes liquid-liquid phase separation by the DEAD-box helicase Ded1p.
Gao J, Gao Z, Putnam AA, Byrd AK, Venus SL, Marecki JC, Edwards AD, Lowe HM, Jankowsky E, Raney KD.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2021 Jul

Sequential Phase II clinical trials evaluating CRLX101 as monotherapy and in combination with bevacizumab in recurrent ovarian cancer.
Krasner CN, Campos SM, Young CL, Chadda KR, Lee H, Birrer MJ, Horowitz NS, Konstantinopoulos PA, D’Ascanio AM, Matulonis UA, Penson RT. Gynecol Oncol. 2021

Effects of Slide Storage on Detection of Molecular Markers by IHC and FISH in Endometrial Cancer Tissues From a Clinical Trial: An NRG Oncology/GOG Pilot Study.
Grushko TA, Filiaci VL, Montag AG, Apushkin M, Gomez MJ, Monovich L, Ramirez NC, Schwab C, Kesterson JP, Seward SM, Method MW, Olopade OI, Fleming GF, Birrer MJ.
Appl Immunohistochem Mol Morphol. 2021

Phase separation drives aberrant chromatin looping and cancer development.
Ahn JH, Davis ES, Daugird TA, Zhao S, Quiroga IY, Uryu H, Li J, Storey AJ, Tsai YH, Keeley DP, Mackintosh SG, Edmondson RD, Byrum SD, Cai L, Tackett AJ, Zheng D, Legant WR, Phanstiel DH, Wang GG.
Nature. 2021

Multi-omics data integration reveals correlated regulatory features of triple negative breast cancer.
Chappell K, Manna K, Washam CL, Graw S, Alkam D, Thompson MD, Zafar MK, Hazeslip L, Randolph C, Gies A, Bird JT, Byrd AK, Miah S, Byrum SD.
Mol Omics. 2021

Single and double modified salinomycin analogs target stem-like cells in 2D and 3D breast cancer models.
Urbaniak A, Reed MR, Fil D, Moorjani A, Heflin S, Antoszczak M, Sulik M, Huczyński A, Kupsik M, Eoff RL, MacNicol MC, Chambers TC, MacNicol AM.
Biomed Pharmacother. 2021

Impacts of diphenylamine NSAID halogenation on bioactivation risks.
Schleiff MA, Payakachat S, Schleiff BM, Swamidass SJ, Boysen G, Miller GP.
Toxicology. 2021

Structure of a dimer of the Sulfolobus solfataricus MCM N-terminal domain reveals a potential role in MCM ring opening.
Meagher M, Spence MN, Enemark EJ.
Acta Crystallogr F Struct Biol Commun. 2021