July 2014 News
John Karanicolas (assistant professor) is the recipient of an award from the J.R. and Inez Jay Fund for his project entitled "Identifying stabilizers of p53 using pocket complimentarity." This award will allow his team to search for compounds that restore cellular activity to mutant forms of the p53 tumor suppressor: such compounds may serve as a starting point for development of new anti-cancer drugs. This is a collaborative project involving Mark Fisher (KUMC Biochemistry and Molecular Biology), Tomoo Iwakuma (KUMC Cancer Biology), Scott Lovell (KU Protein Structure Lab), and Steven Rogers (KU Med Chem Lab).
Dr. Wonpil Im (associate professor) has his research highlighted on the cover of Biophysical Journal, for his article entitled “E. coli outer membrane and interactions with OmpLA.”
Liang Xu (associate professor) is the recipient of a Pilot Project Award from the Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Protein Structure and Function for his project entitled “Fragment based drug discovery for inhibitors of RNA-Binding HuhR.” The major goal of this proposal is the find lead compounds that will be a starting point for breast cancer therapeutics.
Delbert Shankel (Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and former Chancellor of the University) has provided an invited perspective on the life of Professor Charlotte Auerbach for Mutation Research/ Reviews in Mutations Research. Professor Auerbach is credited with the discovery that chemicals are mutagenic and with pioneering studies of mutations in animals; these were observations made during World War II and many were allowed to be published only after the war. Dr. Shankel spent a sabbatical year in 1967 with Professor Auerbach, and the article is entitled "Memories of a Friend and Mentor – Charlotte Auerbach".
James Akagi (Retired Professor) visited KU in early June, traveling from his current home in the Seattle area. He spent the day reminiscing about his days in the former Department of Microbiology, catching up with friends and colleagues, meeting new Molecular Biosciences Faculty Members and learning about current research and other developments in the department. Jim is shown here (center) with faculty members Scott Hefty, Dean Stetler, Susan Egan and Steve Benedict outside the new Akagi Conference Room in the Molecular Biosciences office.
Michael Barta (postdoctoral fellow, Hefty lab) won an iPad mini for his best poster entitled “Structural and Genetic Evidence Support that Chlamydia trachomatis CT398 (CdsZ) Interacts with σ54 (RpoN) and the Type III Secretion Export System” at the Second Annual Symposium on Structural Biology sponsored by the Oklahoma Center for Biomedical Research Excellence in Structural Biology at the University of Oklahoma on June 9. Michael is pictured with Ann West, director of the COBRE and Joseph A. Brandt Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry.
Kara Hinshaw (graduate student, Chandler lab) will be appointed to the National Institutes of Health funded Graduate Training Program in Dynamic Aspects of Chemical Biology Training Grant on July 1 for a term of two years.
