Category: Biochemistry

From sequence to consequence: Petsko-Ringe lab celebration

From Sequence to Consequence: Celebrating 30 Years of Science with
Dagmar Ringe and Greg Petsko
June 18-19, 2010
8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Shapiro Auditorium

On September 4, 1980, Drs. Dagmar Ringe and Greg Petsko entered into an official collaboration, and the scientific community has never been the same since.  Now, 30 years later, their joint lab at Brandeis University is putting together a symposium to celebrate their combined lifetimes of achievement.  This 2-day event features 20 speakers who either trained or collaborated with the lab, plus a dinner reception on Friday night.  Registration is now open to all members of the Brandeis community.  Details and registration can be found at http://www.bio.brandeis.edu/PRSymposium2010/.  The registration code is scc30.

Dagmar and Greg

Brandeis professor and postdoc alumni win Searle Scholars grants

One Brandeis professor and two of our former postdocs are among the 15 recipients of the competitive Searle Scholars awards for 2010. Nelson Lau, an assistant professor in the Biology Dept., won for his work on “Germline Genome Regulation by Piwi Proteins and Small RNAs”. Katie Henzler-Wildman is a former postdoc from the Kern lab in Biochemistry who now has a lab at Washington Univ. in St. Louis. Katie received a grant to study “The Role of Protein Dynamics in Multidrug Resistance Transport Activity”. David Biron, an alumnus of the Sengupta Lab who is now an assistant professor at U. Chicago, received a grant to study “Understanding Lethargus: The Sleep-Like Behavior of the Nematode C. Elegans“.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Biochemistry Senior Research Talks

It’s also the season for Senior Honors / Masters Thesis talks…

DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY

Annual Senior Research Talks
2009/2010 Biochemistry Honors and BS/MS Candidates

Friday, April  23, 11:30-1:30pm – G-zang 122

Clarence Friedman – BS/MS

Characterization of 1-d-deoxyxylulose reductoisomerase
Advisor: Dan Oprian

Stefan Isaac  – BS/MS

Functional Characterization and in silico Modeling of HlyU
Advisors:  Dagmar Ringe/Greg Petsko

Seth Lieblich BS/MS

Bacterial Gene Repressors
Advisor: Dagmar Ringe

Miranda Patton BS/MS

Mutation of the Active Site of IMP Dehydrogenase, to Find a Novel Mutant and Create a Hybrid GMP Reductase
Advisor:  Liz Hedstrom

Nat Lazar BS

We are superfamily: bioinformatic and biochemical analyses of protein evolution
Advisor:  Douglas Theobald

Kanchana Ravichandran BS

Formation of heterotetramers between the human isozymes of Inosine 5’-Monophosphate Dehydrogenase
Advisor:  Liz Hedstrom

Seth Robey BS

Streamlining C1C-0 Purification and Examining the pH Dependence of an Amino Acid Transporter
Advisor:  Chris Miller

Kenta Yamamoto BS

The Type-1 Insulin-Like Growth Factor in Cancer and Hematopoiesis
Advisor: Ruibao Ren

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to come.  Pizza will be provided.

PhD Defense Season

It’s the season for PhD defenses…

  • Apr 20: Megan Zahniser (Biochemistry), On the structure of Benzaldehyde Dehydrogenase, a Class 3 Aldehyde Dehydrogenase from Pseudomonas putida – 2pm, Rosenstiel Penthouse
  • Apr 21: Chris Hoefler (Biochemistry/Bioorganic Chemistry). Inhibitors of IMPDH: Tools for Probing Mechanism and Function – 3:40 pm, Gerstenzang 122
  • Apr 22: Tepring Piquado (Neuroscience), Language and the aging brain – Thu 4/22/2010, 2 pm, Volen 201
  • Apr 23: Suvi Jain (Molecular and Cell Biology), Regulation of DNA Double-Strand Break Repair by the Recombination Execution Checkpoint in Saccharomyces cerevisiae – 3:30 pm, Rosenstiel 118
  • Apr 29: Ben Cuiffo (Molecular and Cell Biology), Targeting RAS palmitoylation in hematological malignancies – 2 pm, Abelson 131