Department News

Welcome Dr. Rahman

Rahman family — Mohammad Rahman at his Ph.D. graduation ceremony in Nagoya University, Japan with his wife and son in traditional Japanese dress.

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

August 2021 Publications

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

July 2021 Publications

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

Congratulations Dr. Schleiff

On July 12, 2021, Mary “Allie” Schleiff successfully defended her dissertation entitled “Diphenylamine NSAIDs are Bioactivated into Hepatotoxic Quinone-Species Metabolites”. Dr. Schleiff was mentored by Dr. Grover Paul Miller and was a trainee of the Systems Pharmacology and Toxicology (SPaT) T32 program. As a graduate student, she was an author on 15 publications, 6 of them first author. Moreover, she gave 24 oral and poster presentations, including invited talks. Based on her research efforts, she received 11 awards including Top 10 Finalist for the Sternfels Prize in Drug Safety Discoveries (2020), Third Place for the Bhuvan Award for Excellence in Biochemistry Graduate Research at UAMS (2021), and the Drug Metabolism and Disposition Highlighted Trainee Author by the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (2021). Allie has since taken a position as a postdoctoral fellow with Drs. Qin Shu and Daniel Willett at the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research in St Louis, MO.

June 2021 publications

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

UAMS Translational Research Institute Names Six Entrepreneurship Scholars

The UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) Health Sciences Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HSIE) Postdoctoral Training Program has named six postdoctoral scholars for its class of 2023. The scholars, selected in a competitive application process, will begin two years of mentored entrepreneurship training July 1.

The program, which includes stipends up to $57,000 per year, is designed to help promising scientists more quickly move their discoveries into everyday practice by teaching them commercialization and team science skills.

The HSIE Postdoctoral Scholars – all from the UAMS College of Medicine – their research project plans and mentors are:

Laura Ewing, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. Her project will focus on identifying predictors of the development, progression or recurrence of different types of ovarian cancer.
Mentor: Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D.

Kindann Fawcett, Ph.D., Department of Pediatric Neurology at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH). Her project will focus on development of a tool to assess risk and best practices in regards to nutrition and its role in the standard care provided for patients at ACH and UAMS. Secondly, she will focus on the creation of a digital media and virtual, interactive learning platform for nutrition and exercise curriculum to educate the youth of Arkansas.
Mentor: Aravindhan Veerapandiyan, M.D.

Tiffany Miles, Ph.D., Department of Neurobiology and Developmental Sciences.
Her project will focus on hormonal deficiencies related to obesity and then establishing a platform to educate Arkansans on the impact of maternal nutrition in offspring development.
Mentor: Angus MacNicol, Ph.D.

Thomas Nienaber, M.D., Department of Pediatrics – Division of Neonatology. His project will address improving the neonatal mechanical ventilation by optimizing the endotracheal tube.
Mentor: Kevin Sexton, M.D.

Megan Reed, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Her project will focus on the use of comparative transcriptomics pipeline to generate and validate patient-specific treatment options for glioblastoma tumors.
Mentors: Alan Tackett, Ph.D., and Analiz Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D.

Julia Tobacyk, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Her project will focus on the development of new treatments for opioid use disorder in pregnancy.
Mentor: Lisa Brents, Ph.D.

It is supported by the NRSA Training Core (TL1) component of the UAMS Clinical and Translational Science Award, grant TL1 TR003109.

“Our program goal is to accelerate biomedical discoveries to improve health and health outcomes,” said Nancy Rusch, Ph.D., who co-directs the program for the UAMS Translational Research Institute. “I am very enthusiastic about this group of scholars. They all have exceptional talent and they are pursuing projects than can make a real difference.”

The HSIE Postdoctoral Training Program has traditionally provided support annually for eight postdoctoral fellows (four in each year of the two-year program). However, this year the program was able to admit a clinical fellow in addition to five postdoctoral fellows. The expansion relied on postdoctoral stipends provided by the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Arkansas Children’s Research Institute, and the Department of Pediatrics – Division of Neonatology. The program curriculum represents a partnership between the UAMS Translational Research Institute and the Entrepreneurship Graduate Program in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.

In addition to Rusch, professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and executive associate dean for research in the College of Medicine, the program’s leadership team includes co-director Kevin Sexton, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Surgery, and Nancy Gray, Ph.D., president of BioVentures and professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. Pamela Kahler is program manager.

The first group of HSIE Scholars named in July 2019, who will be graduating from the program this spring are: Melody Greer, Ph.D. (mentor, Fred Prior, Ph.D.), Samir Jenkins, Ph.D. (mentor, Robert Griffin, Ph.D.), Astha Malhotra, Ph.D. (mentors, Amanda Stolarz, Pharm.D., Ph.D.; and Jawahar Mehta, M.D., Ph.D.), and Aaron Storey, Ph.D. (mentor, Rick Edmondson, Ph.D.). The second group of HSIE Scholars named in July 2020 are: Emilie Darrigues, Ph.D. (mentor, Analiz Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D.), Shana Owens, Ph.D. (mentor, Craig Forrest, Ph.D.), John Sherrill, M.P.H., Ph.D. (mentor, David Bumpass, M.D.), and Zachary Waldrip, Ph.D. (mentor, Marie Burdine, Ph.D.)

May 2021 publications

Metaproteomics-An Advantageous Option in Studies of Host-Microbiota Interaction.

Karaduta O, Dvanajscak Z, Zybailov B.Microorganisms.

PTMViz: a tool for analyzing and visualizing histone post translational modification data.

Chappell K, Graw S, Washam CL, Storey AJ, Bolden C, Peterson EC, Byrum SD.BMC Bioinformatics.

Persistent bone marrow minimal residual disease as a “high-risk” disease feature in multiple myeloma.

Mohan M, Szabo A, Yarlagadda N, Gundarlapalli S, Thanendrarajan S, Kendrick S, Schinke C, Alapat D, Sawyer J, Tian E, Tricot G, van Rhee F, Zangari M.Am J Hematol.

Congratulations to Our 2021 Graduates!

The Graduate School held a virtual hooding ceremony for the 2021 graduates on Thursday, May 13. Six students from the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department completed their doctorate this year. Dr. Dustyn Barnette was hooded by his mentor, Dr. Grover Paul Miller at Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Dr. Megan Reed was hooded by her mentor, Dr. Robert Eoff, and Dr. Andrea Edwards-Azumara was hooded by her husband. Dr. Edwards-Azumara’s mentor was Dr. Kevin Raney.

Also graduating from the BCMB department this year were Dr. Duah Alkam, Dr. Brian Koss, and Dr. Erin Taylor. Dr. Alkam’s mentors were Dr. Mark Smeltzer and Dr. David Ussery. Dr. Koss and Dr. Taylor were both mentored by Dr. Alan Tackett.

April publications

Inhibition of tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase impairs DNA damage tolerance and repair in glioma cells.

Reed MR, Maddukuri L, Ketkar A, Byrum SD, Zafar MK, Bostian ACL, Tackett AJ, Eoff RL.

NAR Cancer. 2021

Image by Evan D. Lewis

New answers to the old RIDDLE: RNF168 and the DNA damage response pathway.

Kelliher J, Ghosal G, Leung JWC.

FEBS J. 2021

UAMS Cancer Researcher Receives $1.1 Million as Part of NIH Grant at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

By David Robinson

A National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant will allow UAMS researcher Isabelle Racine Miousse, Ph.D., to ramp up her study of a nutrient that may have a role in the effectiveness of immunotherapy for cancer patients.

Miousse will receive $220,000 per year for up to five years as one of four project leaders at the Arkansas Integrative Metabolic Research Center, a new NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The university announced April 6 that the center will receive $10.8 million over five years.

The funding will support Miousse’s preclinical cancer studies involving methionine, an amino acid important for human growth and derived primarily from consuming meat.

Miousse, an assistant professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, will test whether reducing dietary methionine can improve results of immunotherapy drugs used to treat melanoma patients.

“This has never been tried in combination with immunotherapy drugs,” Miousse said, noting that immunotherapy alone works remarkably well, but only for 50% of melanoma patients. “So far the results of this research are very encouraging, and I am hopeful that this next phase of study will take us into clinical trials.”

Unlike most cancer treatments, she notes, this one has beneficial side effects.

“Reducing methionine in the diet promotes the metabolism of fats and sugars in animal models,” Miousse said. “Methionine restriction could fight cancer and improve general health at the same time.”

Miousse’s work has been supported by the UAMS Translational Research Institute’s two-year KL2 Mentored Research Career Development Award for promising early career researchers. The KL2 provides salary support, research seed funding of $50,000 and translational research training. The institute is supported by a Clinical and Translational Science Award from the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.