Several undergraduate students who performed summer research in the Biochemistry Department presented their research at the Arkansas INBRE fall conference.

Poster presenters included:

• Anthony Carreira from the University of Arkansas, mentored by Wayne Wahls, Ph.D.
• Daniela Perez Laguna from Arkansas State University, mentored by Tudor Moldoveanu, Ph.D.
• Jeremiah Canady from the University of Central Arkansas, mentored by Isabelle Miousse, Ph.D.
• Kate Jackson from Hendrix College, mentored by Robert Eoff, Ph.D.

Oral presenters included:

• Tommy Caldarera from Hendrix College, mentored by Alicia Byrd, Ph.D.

Two of these students won awards for their poster presentations!

• Kate Jackson (Eoff lab) won first place in Biological Sciences.
• Daniela Perez Laguna (Moldoveanu lab) won second place in Biological Sciences.

Congratulations to Jessica Kelliher on the successful defense of her dissertation on “Molecular Mechanisms of the Phospho-Ubiquitin Axis in the Response to Double-Stranded Breaks”. Jessica’s advisors were Dr. Justin Leung and Dr. Brian Koss. Dr. Kelliher will be staying at UAMS as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Brian Koss’s lab.

RNA Splicing in Cancer and Targeted Therapies.
Islam MR, Nagar P, Neetole ST, Wan L, Rahman MA.
Genes (Basel). 2023

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Synthesis and Anti-Melanoma Activity of Acryloyl Pyridinone Analogues.
Urbaniak A, Bathula C, Chauhan J, Rai P, Thammathong J, Clark C, Heflin B, De Loose A, Avaritt N, Rodriguez A, Tackett AJ, Sen S, Banerjee S.
Chem Biodivers. 2023

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Pif1 Helicase Mediates Remodeling of Protein-Nucleic Acid Complexes by Promoting Dissociation of Sub1 from G-Quadruplex DNA and Cdc13 from G-Rich Single-Stranded DNA.
Chib S, Griffin WC, Gao J, Proffitt DR, Byrd AK, Raney KD.
Biochemistry. 2023

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TNRC18 engages H3K9me3 to mediate silencing of endogenous retrotransposons.
Zhao S, Lu J, Pan B, Fan H, Byrum SD, Xu C, Kim A, Guo Y, Kanchi KL, Gong W, Sun T, Storey AJ, Burkholder NT, Mackintosh SG, Kuhlers PC, Edmondson RD, Strahl BD, Diao Y, Tackett AJ, Raab JR, Cai L, Song J, Wang GG.
Nature. 2023

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Experimental pharmacology in precision medicine.
Urbaniak A, Thummel KE, Alade AN, Rettie AE, Prasad B, De Nicolò A, Martin JH, Sheppard DN, Jarvis MF.
Pharmacol Res Perspect. 2023

Resveratrol induces major histocompatibility complex class I antigen presentation in a STING-dependent and independent manner in melanoma.
Morehead LC, Koss B, Fil D, Heflin B, Garg S, Wallis KF, Tackett AJ, Miousse IR.
Mol Immunol. 2023

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Bifunctional inhibitor reveals NEK2 as a therapeutic target and regulator of oncogenic pathways in lymphoma.
McCrury M, Swafford K, Shuttleworth SL, Mehdi SH, Acharya B, Saha D, Naceanceno K, Byrum SD, Storey AJ, Xu YZ, Doshier C, Patel V, Post GR, De Loose A, Rodriguez A, Shultz LD, Zhan F, Yoon D, Frett B, Kendrick S.
Mol Cancer Ther. 2023

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Characterization of methionine dependence in melanoma cells.
Garg S, Morehead LC, Bird JT, Graw S, Gies A, Storey AJ, Tackett AJ, Edmondson RD, Mackintosh SG, Byrum SD, Miousse IR.
Mol Omics. 2023

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Identification of Regulatory Elements in Primary Sensory Neurons Involved in Trauma-Induced Neuropathic Pain.
Stephens KE, Moore C, Vinson DA, White BE, Renfro Z, Zhou W, Ji Z, Ji H, Zhu H, Guan Y, Taverna SD.
Mol Neurobiol. 2023

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.

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.

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.

Register here 

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.

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

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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

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