Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Dr. Andrew Norris, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry, received a new NIH R01 in collaboration with Dr. John Engelhart, Professor and Chair of Anatomy & Cell Biology, entitled “Splanchno-Hormonal Mechanisms of Cystic Fibrosis Related Diabetes.” For unclear reasons most people who have cystic fibrosis will develop diabetes by middle age, placing them at much […]

Dr. Madeline Shea will be presented with the Emily M. Gray Award in Education at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in San Francisco on February 19. In advance of the meeting, Dr. Shea published a blog piece to help first-time attendees at the meeting. Read her advice here: https://biophysicalsociety.wordpress.com/2018/02/09/making-the-most-of-t...

Shuxiang Li, a Biochemistry PhD student mentored by Dr. Adrian Elcock, received a PhD on December 15,2017 entitled, “Computer simulations exploring conformational preferences of short peptides and developing a bacterial chromosome model”. Shuxiang has accepted a postdoctoral position with Dr. Wilma Olson’s Laboratory at Rutgers University.   Liyang Zhang, a Biochemistry PhD student mentored by […]

Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Weeks, who was awarded the 2017 Faculty Service Award from the Carver College of Medicine. Dr.  Weeks is an internationally known nuclei acid biochemistry and developmental biologist who has had a productive research career and won many teaching awards. For the past 30 years, Dr. Weeks has dedicated three decades to […]

Congratulations to Professor Ernesto Fuentes for being chosen to receive a Carver College of Medicine (CCOM) Collegiate Teaching Award for 2017. Dr. Fuentes’ didactic teaching has included an unusually wide range of topics such as protein structure analysis, enzyme kinetics and molecular biology. He has taught a broad range of students in undergraduate laboratory courses (Biochem. […]

The 2017 Biochemistry @ Iowa newsletter is hot off the presses and available for download. Alumni and friends should receive a hard copy in the mail this week. If you would like to be added to our mailing list, please send your contact information to biochem@uiowa.edu. While you are at it, feel free to send […]

Dr. Miles Pufall received the 2017 Donald D. Dorfman Award of $10,000 for his paper entitled “Suppression of B-cell development genes is key to glucocorticoid efficacy in treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia,” which was published in the June 2017 issue of Blood. The Dorfman Award is given annually to the best research papers in leukemia […]

Ryan Sheldon, a Postdoc in the Taylor laboratory, received an F32 Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Sheldon’s project entitled “Regulation of Hepatic Lipogenesis by a Mitochondrial Pyruvate Carrier-Citrate Carrier Axis,” addresses the major public health problem of hyperlipidemia during Type 2 Diabetes. Excess lipid production in the […]

Elizabeth Boehm, who completed her PhD with Dr. M. Todd Washington, has been awarded the 2017 Subramanian Award for best PhD thesis in the Department of Biochemistry. Dr. Boehm’s thesis was entitled “The regulation of translesion synthesis through binding and activation of polymerases by PCNA.” Elizabeth received her PhD in June 2016 and is currently […]

The Department of Biochemistry held their 8th Annual Retreat on August, 26, 2017, in the Pomerantz Center on the University of Iowa Campus. The retreat featured talks by Brittany Ripley (Graduate Student-Washington Lab), Pamela Geyer (Professor), Adam Rauckhorst (Postdoc.-Taylor Lab), and Maria Spies (Professor) and 32 poster presentations. It was exciting to learn about all […]