Congratulations DBC Student Travel Awardees!
Congratulations to our DBC Student Travel Awardees for ACS Spring 2024!
Read more about these outstanding scientists below and be sure to check our their presentations in New Orleans next week.
Qi “Chris” Su (he/his/him)
Post-doctoral Fellow at the Unviersity of California, San Diego, Jin Zhang Lab
Research Focus: Use of an ultra-sensitive PKC fluorescent biosensor to study its subcellular regulation at the ER, lysosome, and par complex.
Presentation: “Sensitive fluorescent biosensor reveals differential subcellular regulation of PKC”, presented as part of Sci-Mix on Monday, March 18 from 8:00-10:00 PM in Hall C, BIOL Section and as part of The Intersection of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Session on Thursday, March 21 from 8:50-9:05 AM in Room 350.
Michelle Frei (she/her)
Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Diego, Jin Zhang Lab
Research Focus: Combining synthetic organic fluorophores with genetically encodable self-labeling protein tags to generate chemigenetic tools with beneficial biophysical properties.
Presentation: “Chemigenetic kinase biosensors for multiplexed activity sensing and super-resolution imaging”, presented as part of the Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry Session on Tuesday, March 19 from 4:00-4:20 PM in Room 350.
Sweta Anantharaman (she/her)
Graduate Student at Stony Brook University, Elizabeth Boon Lab
Research Focus: Understanding the role of a nitric oxide sensing heme-protein NosP and its associated kinase NahK in biofilm regulation in pathogenic bacteria.
Presentation: “Role of the NosP associated histidine kinase NahK in nitric oxide-stress resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginose”, presented as part of Sci-Mix on Monday, March 18 from 8:00-10:00 PM in Hall C, BIOL Section and as part of the Graduate Research in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Session on Thursday, March 21 from 10:40-10:55 AM in Room 353.
Eslam Ali (she/her)
Post-doctoral Fellow at the University of California, Irvine, Darci Trader Lab
Research Focus: Developing bifunctional linkers for ubiquitin-independent degradation of target proteins.
Presentation: “ByeTAC: Bypassing an E3 Ligase for Targeted Protein Degradation”, presented as part of the MEDI General Poster Session on Sunday, March 17 from 7:00-9:00 PM in Hall C.
Diana Łomowska-Keehner
Graduate Student at the University of Florida, Jeffrey Rudolph Lab
Research Focus: Genome mining for new terpene synthases in Streptomyces to discover bacterial natural products.
Presentation: “Investigation of bacterial terpene natural product biosynthesis through heterologous expression”, presented as part of The Intersection of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Poster Session on Wednesday, March 20 from 7:00-9:00 PM in Hall C, BIOL Section.
Caitlin McCadden (she/her/hers)
Graduate Student at the University of Florida, Jeffrey Rudolph Lab
Research Focus: Utilizing traditional enzymology techniques and modern biocatalytic strategies to investigate terpenoid natural products in bacteria.
Presentation: “Biocatalytic diversification of a diterpenoid substrate using a cytochrome P450 targeted genome mining approach”, presented as part of the Graduate Research in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology on Tuesday, March 19 from 8:00-8:20 AM in Room 353.
Emily Swanson Hay (she/her)
Graduate Student at Duke University, Amanda Hargrove Lab
Research Focus: Specific recognition of RNA triple helices by natural products with a unique binding mechanism.
Presentation: “High-throughput screening of triplex-containing RNA motifs identifies catechols as a metal-mediated triplex binding motif”, presented as part of the Graduate Research in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology session on Tuesday, March 19 from 10:25-10:40 AM in Room 353.
Nidhi Kalia (she/her)
Graduate Student at the University of Florida, Michael Harris Lab
Research Focus: Viral enzymology and its application to creating highly specific therapies for SARS-CoV-2.
Presentation: “Evidence for acid-base catalysis and substrate-dependent metal ion activation by coronavirus NSP15 endonuclease”, presented as part of Sci-Mix on Monday, March 18 from 8:00-10:00 PM in Hall C, BIOL Section and as part of The Intersection of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Poster Session from 7:00-9:00 PM in Hall C, BIOL Section.
Shinsuke Segawa (he/him)
Graduate Student at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Ben Zhong Tang Lab
Research Focus: Preparation of bioorthogonal fluorogenic probes without the use of organic synthesis
Presentation: (1) “Co-aggregation as an exceptionally simple platform for preparing fluorogenic tetrazine probes with on-demand fluorogen selection”, presented as part of the Emerging Areas and New Methods in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Session on Wednesday, March 20 from 2:35-2:50 PM. (2) “Tetrazine ligation: A facile strategy for developing π-conjugated chemical libraries for screening-based material discovery”, presented as part of the Heterocycles & Aromatics Session on Thursday, March 21 from 9:00-9:20 AM in Room 348. (3) “Aggregation strategy for designing ultra-highly fluorogenic bioorthogonal probes”, presented as part of the Photocatalysis & Photochemistry Session on Wednesday, March 20 from 8:20-8:40 AM in Room 341.
Michael Founds
Graduate Student at the University of Texas at Austin, Ken Hsu Lab
Presentation: “Covalent SuTEx probes and inhibitors for Prostaglandin Reductase 2 (PTGR2)Covalent SuTEx probes and inhibitors for Prostaglandin Reductase 2 (PTGR2)”, presented as part of The Intersection of Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Session on Tuesday, March 19 from 4:05-4:20PM in Room 353.
Olivia Murtagh
Graduate Student at the University of Texas at Austin, Ken Hsu Lab
Presentation: “Using serine hydrolase inhibitors to modulate diacylglycerol metabolism in human monocytes”, presented as part of the Graduate Research in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology Session on Sunday, March 17 from 10:20-10:35 AM in Room 353.