Brandeis undergraduates can take a peek at what the future might hold for them. Polina Ogas ’07 (BS/MS, Biochem), now in the MD/PhD program at Harvard Med, discusses the details on the Harvard Med Girl blog.
Category: Biochemistry
Can a “chemical rope” help treat ALS?
In this week’s issue of PNAS, Brandeis postdoc Jared Auclair and Chemistry grad student Kristin Boggio, together with Professors Greg Petsko, Dagmar Ringe, and Jeffrey Agar discuss Strategies for stabilizing superoxide dismutase (SOD1), the protein destabilized in the most common form of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Working from the hypothesis that the mechanism of the toxicity involves dimer destabilization and dissociation as an early step in SOD1 aggregation, they looked for mechanisms to stabilize SOD1 using chemical cross-linking. Cross-linking the dimer using 2 adjacent cysteine residues results in substantial stabilization of relevant SOD1 mutants.
Read more about Prof. Agar, this research, and its potential for this technique in the treatment of ALS at Brandeis NOW
Biochemistry, Biophysics and Quantitative Biology Retreat 2010
Grad students, postdocs and faculty from the Graduate Program in Biochemistry & Biophysics and from the interdisciplinary program in Quantitative Biology gathered for their Annual Retreat October 21-22, 2010 at Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA. See the program here.
For ClC transporters, breaking up is hard to do
Many ion channels and transporters exist as oligomers with each subunit containing a distinct transport pathway. A classic example is the ClC family of chloride channels and transporters that are homodimeric with a pathway for chloride permeation or chloride/proton anti-port through each subunit. Because of their dimer structure, they have come to be known as “double-barreled shotguns” for chloride movement across the membrane.
Since each subunit appears to possess the complete machinery required for transport, it is often wondered whether ClCs need to be dimeric in order to carry out function. In a study published last week in Nature, Brandeis researchers Janice Robertson, Ludmila Kolmakova-Partensky and Professor Christopher Miller answer this question. By introducing two tryptophan mutations at the dimer interface, they designed a variant of a ClC transporter that could be purified and crystallized as an isolated monomer. With this, they were able to determine that the monomer alone was fully capable of carrying out chloride and proton transport function. These results show that the dimer is not required and that the monomer is the fundamental unit of transport in ClCs. The question of why ClCs evolved as dimers remains a key question for understanding membrane protein structure.
Connecting with underrepresented minorities in the sciences
For the past six years, Brandeis has been participating yearly at two undergraduate-oriented conferences in an effort to recruit the best minority students for the life sciences graduate programs. These two conferences are: SACNAS (Society for advancing Hispanics/chicanos and Native American in science) and ABRCMS (Annual Biomedical research conference for minority students).
This year SACNAS was held at Anaheim, CA during September 30 and October 3. Professor Jim Morris and 2 graduate students represented Brandeis and interacted with post-docs, graduate students, pre college teachers, undergrads and other 300 exhibitors. The theme of this year conference was Science, Technology & Diversity for a Sustainable Future. In addition, SACNAS combined efforts with MAES (Society for Mexican American engineers and scientists) in order to make the experience more interdisciplinary.
For the past 30 years SACNAS has been holding this conference to enforce the underrepresented minority population in science to pursue advanced degrees, careers, and positions of leadership. A Brandeis SACNAS chapter was created over a year ago, in order to provide information and give access to professional tools to all the undergrads interested in pursuing careers in science. This year, the Brandeis SACNAS chapter was recognized during the meeting as a new chapter, and 9 of our undergraduates participated in the conference; 2 of them Angel Garcia and Kerwin Vega, presented their research in the poster sessions. You can also connect with the Brandeis chapter on Facebook.
– Yaihara Fortis
Life is a Ponzi Scheme (and more)
Greg Petsko, Gyula and Katica Tauber Professor of Biochemistry & Chemistry, has been writing a monthly column in the journal Genome Biology since its inception 10 years ago. To honor the journal’s 10th anniversary, these columns have now been released as an e-book.
These columns are wide-ranging and rarely fail to amuse and inform. Some examples: 
The Changing Face of Science Reflected in Exciting New Courses
Exciting advances in science are reflected in at least 9 new courses to be offered by the Division of Science. From epigenetics to medicinal enzymology to stem cells to MATLAB, these courses will expose students to some of the frontiers of new knowledge in science.
- BCHM 107b Advanced Topics in Biochemistry: Research Hoedown
- BCHM 155b Biochemistry Laboratory’
- BISC 8a Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
- BIOL 124b Epigenetics
- BIOT 201b Business of Biotechnology
- CBIO 106b Chemical Biology: Medicinal Enzymology
- COSI 177a Intro to Scientific Computing
- NBIO 123b Population Genetics/Genomics
- PSYC 146a Evolutionary Psychology
Details of the courses offered can be found on the following pages
Summer Research
During the summer of 2010, over 50 undergraduates worked in faculty laboratories at Brandeis doing science research. The undergraduates were sponsored by the NSF MRSEC grant, ARRA funding from NINDS, the Beckman Foundation, and other federal and private sources. The ten-week summer program included weekly research seminars that were multidisciplinary with a wide variety of topics. The program culminated in a poster session at the end of the summer, held in the spacious atrium of the new Shapiro Science building. The poster session provided an excellent opportunity for faculty, students and post-docs to informally discuss their new research findings.
2010 Beckman Scholars
Brandeis was recently awarded a grant from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation through their Beckman Scholars Program. This grant will support two students each through two summers and one academic year of undergraduate research.
Philip Braunstein and Jessica Hutcheson have been named the 2010 Beckman Scholars. Braunstein (class of 2012) is a Biochemistry major identifying parasite-selective inhibitors of pyrimidine biosynthesis in the Hedstrom laboratory. Hutcheson (2011) is a Biochemistry/Neruoscience major investigating the molecular processes that determine memory in the Griffith laboratory.
Congratulations to the winners!
Formal test of the theory of a Universal Common Ancestor
In letter to Nature, Doug Theobald, Assistant Professor of Biochemistry, presents a formal test of the theory that evolution proceeds from a single common ancestor, using model selection theory.
Science at Brandeis 