Fifth year, GPIBS, Biochemistry track

Education

Harding University, B.S. Molecular and Cellular Biology with a minor in Computer Science

Research

My research focuses on deriving mechanisms of a relatively understudied human helicase known as DNA Helicase B, or HELB for short. HELB is a first responder to many types of DNA damage, and our lab has found that it also responds to events at replication forks during DNA replication. My project aims to define molecular mechanisms of HELB action at stalled and reversed replication forks to better understand where HELB fits into various DNA replication stress response and DNA repair pathways. Notably, loss of HELB leads to resistance to PARP inhibitor (olaparib) chemotherapy in BRCA1^-/- mouse xenograft models, and loss of HELB causes cells to become sensitive to ATR inhibitor chemotherapeutics (ceralasertib, etc.). We have found that HELB is recruited to ssDNA to aid loading and unloading of various ssDNA binding proteins to aid downstream replication stress and DNA repair processes. Hopefully my research (and the broader research within the Byrd lab) to define the role(s) and mechanism(s) of HELB can be used in the future to better predict and understand chemotherapeutic efficacy.

Notable about his time as a Graduate

During my time as a graduate student, I have enjoyed getting to do a wide variety of different techniques and day-to-day tasks. On any given day, I could be:

• growing human cell lines (my millions of “children”)
• growing bacteria (my other “children”)
• accidentally growing bacteria with my human cell lines (oops)
• writing something (and pretending to be a fiction author)
• making a poster (and pretending to be a graphic designer)
• coding something (and pretending to be a programmer)
• analyzing sequencing data (and pretending like I understand anything at all about Bayesian statistics)
• doing a western blot (for the tenth time)
• silanizing my own coverslips for DNA combing (and then never actually using them)

I have learned that, if you are indecisive about your career path, graduate school lets you do it all at once (for better or for worse)!

Career Goals

My career goal is to be a science educator and/or communicator in some capacity. I have recently accepted a job offer from Lyon College in Batesville, AR to become an Assistant Professor within their Chemistry Department! I will be teaching biochemistry, general chemistry, and starting my own independent research with students in the Fall 2025 semester. I am excited to hone my communication and teaching skills, and I am excited to help students reach their career goals by engaging with chemistry in the world around them.

Experiment or technique you would most like to do

I think it would be super fun to do two-dimensional gel electrophoresis to visualize replication fork stalling at a specific site in the genome. This relatively obscure technique produces wild looking smears and arcs of DNA that can (somehow) be interpreted to learn about DNA replication at specific genomic loci. When I first came across these kinds of gels, I always joked that the images required magic to interpret.

Fun Facts

I participate in a lot of local musical ensembles. I play clarinet/contra alto clarinet in the North Little Rock Community Band, until recently played cornet in the Natural State Brass Band, and sing in my church choir. I can also play bassoon, but I’ll have to save more money to be able to purchase one!

Publications

1. Thompson, M. D., Malone, E. G., & Byrd, A. K. 2022. Monitoring helicase-catalyzed unwinding of multiple duplexes simultaneously. Methods in Enzymology 672:1–27. doi:10.1016/BS.MIE.2022.02.018.
2. Thompson, M.D., and Byrd A.K. 2024. Untargeted CUT&Tag and BG4 CUT&Tag are both enriched at G-quadruplexes and accessible chromatin. bioRxiv 2024.09.26.615263; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.09.26.615263.
3. Malone, E. G., Thompson, M. D., & Byrd, A. K. 2022. Role and Regulation of Pif1 Family Helicases at the Replication Fork. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2022, Vol. 23, Page 3736 23(7):3736. doi:10.3390/IJMS23073736.
4. Osei, B., May, B. H., Stiefel, C. M., West, K. L., Zafar, M. K., Thompson, M. D., Bergstrom, E., Leung, J. W., Enemark, E. J., and Byrd, A. K. 2024. Rare SNP in the HELB gene interferes with RPA interaction and cellular function of HELB. bioRxiv 2024.02.27.582415. doi:10.1101/2024.02.27.582415.
5. Byrd, A. K., Malone, E. G., Hazeslip, L., Zafar, M. K., Harrison, D. K., Thompson, M. D., Gao, J., Perumal, S. K., Marecki, J. C., & Raney, K. D. 2021. A structural feature of Dda helicase which enhances displacement of streptavidin and trp repressor from DNA. Protein Science. doi:10.1002/PRO.4232.
6. Chappell, K., Manna, K., Washam, C. L., Graw, S., Alkam, D., Thompson, M. D., Zafar, M. K., Hazeslip, L., Randolph, C., Gies, A., Bird, J. T., Byrd, A. K., Miah, S., & Byrum, S. D. 2021. Multi-omics data integration reveals correlated regulatory features of triple negative breast cancer. Molecular Omics 17(5):677–691. doi:10.1039/D1MO00117E

Awards

• Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Cancer Research Training and Education Core Travel Award (2024)
• Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Cancer Research Training and Education Core Travel Award (2023)
• Third place, UAMS Bhuvan Award for Excellence in Biochemistry Research (2023)
• Runner up, UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute Award for Outstanding Cancer Research (2023)
• Finalist, UAMS Student Research Day 3 Minute Thesis Competition (2022)