March 2014 News
Roberto De Guzman (associate professor) – The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease of the National Institutes of Health has renewed Dr. De Guzman’s Research Project Grant (R01) entitled "NMR Studies of Bacterial Needle and Tip Proteins." The aim of this five year project is the elucidation of how bacterial pathogens assemble a needle-like nanoinjector that is used to inject virulence proteins directly into human cells to cause infectious diseases. Understanding in atomic detail how bacterial nanoinjectors are assembled is needed in developing novel anti-infectives targeted at disrupting the assembly of bacterial nanoinjectors.
Liang Xu (associate professor) has a Research Highlight in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The highlighted article is entitled “Antibody against CD44s inhibits pancreatic tumor initiation and postradiation recurrence in mice” and appears in the journal Gastroenterology.
Stuart Macdonald (associate professor), along with Drs. Belinda Sturm of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, Sharon Billings and Ben Sikes of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Jennifer Roberts of Geology, was awarded a Level I Strategic Initiative Grant entitled “Creating a Center for Metagenomic Microbial Community Analysis.” This project applies existing next-generation DNA sequencing and computing infrastructure at KU to advance knowledge of microbial communities in diverse environments.
Chris Gamblin (associate professor) was a faculty representative for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Winter Mini College February 1-2 in San Antonio, Texas. As part of the weekend of events, he presented a lecture entitled “The Fight Against Rogue Proteins in Alzheimer’s Disease”.
Berl Oakley (professor, left) and Chris Gamblin (associate professor, pictured above) had their research highlighted by the KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for their article entitled “Inhibition of Tau Aggregation by Three Aspergillus nidulans Secondary Metabolites: 2,ω-Dihydroxyemodin, Asperthecin and Asperbenzaldehyde” which appears in the journal Planta Medica.
Erik Lundquist (professor), along with Drs. Marco Bortolato of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Merlin Butler of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences (KUMC) Paula Fite of Clinical Child Psychology and Ann Manzardo of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences (KUMC), was awarded a Level I Strategic Initiative Grant entitled “Developing a Research Consortium on Aggression and Drug Abuse.” The consortium will be the first multidisciplinary network in the country for studying how and why pathological impulsive aggression and substance abuse and addition disorders exist concurrently but independently in a subject. Using a unique combination of clinical and preclinical studies, the goal is to develop effective preventive and therapeutic interventions.
On February 3, the Newmark Lecture in Biochemistry was presented by Professor Chaitin Khosla of Stanford University (left with Dr. Audrey Lamb). Yan Xia (Karanicolas lab) was presented the Newmark Award for outstanding graduate work in biochemistry (right with Dr. Bill Dentler).
Jessica van Loben Sels (undergraduate, Davido lab) is the recipient of a Kansas IDeA Network for Biomedical Research Excellence Undergraduate Research Scholarship for her project entitled “Identifying Mechanisms of Action by Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Infected Cell Protein 0 that Impair the Interferon β Response.” The award provides research funding for the spring and summer of 2014.
