Department News

June 2026 publications

Human REV1 interacts with DHX36 to promote replication and tolerance of G-quadruplex DNA.
Ketkar A, Paxton BC, Zuniga OE, Sewilam RS, Morales M, Schaller J, McCollum RJ, Jackson KE, Lowran K, Paul A, Patel M, Seenivasan S, McCrury M, Al-Anbaky Q, Maddukuri L, Kendrick S, Wu CG, Gunderson JEC, Eoff RL.
Nucleic Acids Res. 2026

Copy-back RNA synthesis by coronavirus polymerase requires helicase activity and is stimulated by remdesivir and molnupiravir.
Rakib A, Das A, Bera SC, Cnossen J, Robles-Sikisaka R, Diefenbacher MV, America PPB, Klein M, Anderson TK, Marecki JC, Wang B, Bogers E, Feng JY, Bilello JP, Papini FS, Smitskamp Q, Sheahan TP, Arnold JJ, Routh A, Artsimovitch I, Kirchdoerfer RN, Cameron CE, Raney KD, Dulin D.
Sci Adv. 2026

Acellular normothermic spleen perfusion resolves transcriptional and non-transcriptional mechanisms of steroid immunosuppression.
Callais NA, Welch S, Rainwater RR, Schaller J, Deng S, Azevedo-Pouly A, Burdine MS, Burdine L.
bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2026

DZNep: A Methyltransferase Modulator for Disease Mitigation.
Garg S, Miousse IR.
Environ Mol Mutagen. 2026

Congratulations to Vy Nguyen

Vy Nguyen with her poster at the FASEB Regulation and Function of Small GTPases meeting

NISBRE Outstanding Poster Presentation Award Winners. — Vy Ngueyn (left) won First Place in the poster presentations at the 2026 NISBRE meeting.

Third year Ph.D student Vy Nugyen won first place for her presentation of her poster, “Rnd3 Regulates Lung Cancer Cell Migration and Invasion via Integrin Alpha 5 and Modulation of Lung Cancer Metastasis” at the 10th Biennial National IDeA Symposium of Biomedical Research Excellence (NISBRE) meeting in Rockville, MD.

Vy Nguyen and other award winners at the FASEB Regulation and Function of Small GTPases meeting — Vy Nguyen (second from right) and other award winners at the FASEB Regulation and Function of Small GTPases meeting

Vy also presented her research as a poster and short talk at the FASEB Regulation and Function of Small GTPases meeting in Melbourne, FL where she won a $750 travel award.

Vy is mentored by Katie Ryan, Ph.D. Congratulations Vy!

Vy Nguyen presenting her research at the FASEB Regulation and Function of Small GTPases meeting

Welcome SURF students

2026 SURF students — 2026 Biochemistry and Molecular Biology SURF students

Welcome to our 2026 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) students. These students will spend 10 weeks performing research projects in laboratories across the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department. The students and their mentors are:

Savea Cunningham – Tudor Moldoveanu, Ph.D.
Luke Garrett – Robert Eoff, Ph.D.
Kaylee Francis – Robert Eoff, Ph.D.
Betty Hu – Joonas Jamsen, Ph.D.
Clara Park – Eric Enemark, Ph.D.
Ashley Wallace – Kirk West, Ph.D.
Jessica Offordum – Sayem Miah, Ph.D.
Fariha Alam Bushra – Mohammad Rahman, Ph.D.
Lillie Ballany – Alicia Byrd, Ph.D.

Congratulations Dr. Zhang

Congratulations to Zihun Zhang, Ph.D. on his successful defense of his dissertation entitled, “The mutant CST6N137D protects against bone damage, but also enhances the immune response in multiple myeloma”. Dr. Zhang was mentored by Fenghuang “Frank” Zhan, M.D., Ph.D. and will continue as a postdoc in the Zhan lab.

April 2026 Publications

Loss of FAM60A disrupts Sin3/HDAC control of the Hippo signaling and promotes oncogenic YAP1 activation.
Miah M, Huda MN, Islam MR, Gerald D, Khator S, Saha A, Alam J, Thornton JL, Gies A, Bauer MA, Stephens KE, Nagalo BM, Rahman MA, Washburn MP, Miah S.
Cell Death Dis. 2026

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.
Cell. 2026

RNA virus polymerase-helicase coupling enables rapid elongation through duplex RNA.
America PPB, Bera SC, Das A, Anderson TK, Marecki JC, Papini FS, Arnold JJ, Kirchdoerfer RN, Cameron CE, Raney KD, Depken M, Dulin D.
Cell Rep. 2026

A Novel Model of Paclitaxel-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy Produces a Clinically Relevant Phenotype in Mice.
Osborn LR, Bishop MG, Rodriguez KA, Redling DM, Duplechain EA, Stephens KE.
Curr Neuropharmacol. 2026

High-resolution metabolic profiling of the effects of early-life stress after peripheral nerve injury.
Rodriguez KA, Bishop MG, Osborn LR, Redling D, Sikes JD, Porter C, Yeruva L, Stephens KE.
J Pain. 2026

Congratulations to Kathy Carlson

Picture of Kevin Raney and Kathy Carlson

Congratulations to Kathy Carlson who received the Staff Excellence Award for Education at the Dean’s Honor Day 2026. Kathy has served as the Education Coordinator for the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department since 2021. She received this award in recognition of her outstanding work ethic and many contributions to the mission and vision of UAMS.

Zijun Zhang

5^th year, GPIBS-Biochemistry and Molecular Biology track

Education

University of Minnesota Twin Cities: B.S. Biochemistry

University of Minnesota Twin Cities: M.S. Pharmacology

Research

My research focuses on investigating the function of CST6, a lysosomal protease inhibitor, in the multiple myeloma microenvironment. I focus on CST6’s immunosuppressive function in the microenvironment, as it has been shown to induce anti-inflammatory responses in macrophages. I used mainly mouse bone marrow primary cells and the KaLwRij mouse model to analyze the immunosuppressive effect of CST6. Using the co-culture assay, flow cytometry, and ELISA, I demonstrated that CST6 can further inhibit T-cell activity and induce T-cell exhaustion. Via mutagenesis, I found that a CST6 mutant, CST6^N137D, does not have an immunosuppressive effect while retaining its ability to inhibit myeloma-induced bone lesion formation. Further mouse study also showed a better therapeutic outcome of CST6^N137D on our KaLwRij model.

Notable about his time as a Graduate

I became surprisingly good at mouse tail vein injections, yet it was the task I dreaded the most during my PhD. It taught me an important lesson: “You can be excellent at something and be applauded for it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to enjoy it.”

Career Goals

I am planning to transition into the industry and get a job at a biotech or pharmaceutical company. Currently, I am actively sending applications to these companies located in Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and San Diego.

Experiment or Technique you would most like to do

If there’s any chance – a systematic training on bioinformatics analysis will be nice!

Fun Facts

I like to write fantasy adventure stories. And I get cursed by my friends (also my audience), not just once, for how sad those stories end.

Publications

Zhang Z, Zhan F. Type 2 Cystatins and Their Roles in the Regulation of Human Immune Response and Cancer Progression. Cancers (Basel). 2023 Nov 10;15(22):5363. doi: 10.3390/cancers15225363IF: 4.4 Q2 . PMID: 38001623; PMCID: PMC10670837.
Guo W, Zhan Y, Mery D, Siegel ER, Sun F, Cheng Y, Ashby TC, Zhang Z, Bailey C, Alapat DV, Peng H, Hadidi SA, Thanendrarajan S, Schinke C, Zangari M, van Rhee F, Tricot G, Shaughnessy JD, Zhan F. Prognostic value of ferritin in ASCT MM patients: integration with GEP models and ISS series systems. Blood Cancer J. 2024 Feb 14;14(1):30. doi: 10.1038/s41408-024-00998-9IF: 11.6 Q1 . PMID: 38355688; PMCID: PMC10866867.
Gai D, Caviness PC, Lazarenko OP, Chen JF, Randolph CE, Zhang Z, Cheng Y, Sun F, Xu H, Blackburn ML, Tricot G, Shaughnessy JD Jr, Chen JR, Zhan F. Cystatin M/E Ameliorates Multiple Myeloma-Induced Hyper Osteolytic Bone Resorption. Cancers (Basel). 2025 Feb 27;17(5):833. doi: 10.3390/cancers17050833. PMID: 40075680; PMCID: PMC11899016.
Guo W, Strouse C, Mery D, Siegel ER, Munshi MN, Ashby TC, Cheng Y, Sun F, Wanchai V, Zhang Z, Bailey C, Alapat DV, Peng H, Al Hadidi S, Thanendrarajan S, Schinke C, Zangari M, van Rhee F, Tricot G, Shaughnessy JD Jr, Zhan F. A Risk Stratification System in Myeloma Patients with Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation. Cancers (Basel). 2024 Mar 11;16(6):1116. doi: 10.3390/cancers16061116. PMID: 38539451; PMCID: PMC10969019.

Awards

2023 – American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting 2024 – Abstract Achievement Award

2026 – American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB) – 2026 Graduate Student or Postdoctoral Researcher Award

March 2026 Publications

Picture of Kendrick lab members on a patio

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

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

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

Student Research Day Winners

Bhuvan Award winners, Anisha Neupane, Christian Mitchell, Md. Mahbub Hasan — Bhuvan Award winners: (L to R) Anisha Neupane, Christian Mitchell, Md Mahbub Hasan

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.

Sydnye Shuttleworth with her mentor, Brian Koss — L to R: Brian Koss and Sydnye Shuttleworth

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.

Dr. Eric Peterson with Md. Rafikul Islam — L to R: Eric Peterson and Md. Rafikul Islam

Best Graduate Student Cancer Research awards recipients:

Dr. Antino Allen with Katherine Cruz — L to R: Antino Allen and Katherine Cruz

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.