Catch up on the activities of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in our latest newsletter ! Have updates to share? Please send those to us via our webform or by email to biochem@uiowa.edu .
News
Dr. Marc Wold, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, was honored as an Impact Scholar at the third annual Celebration of Excellence in Research, Scholarship, Teaching, and Service on Monday, April 24th. Carver College of Medicine Impact Scholars are selected "based on on the Hirsch index, also known as the H-index, which represents the number of research papers a faculty member has published, and the papers' impact as determined by how many times they have been cited by other scientists and scholars in subsequent research articles." Dr. Wold was recognized for having an H-index score of 50 or higher. Congratulations Dr. Wold!
Congratulations to graduate student Logan Dawson for successfully passing the comprehensive exam! Logan will continue his PhD studies under the mentorship of Dr. Kris DeMali.
Congratulations to graduate student Lucy Langmack for successfully passing the comprehensive exam! Lucy will continue her PhD studies under the mentorship of Dr. Ted Abel.
Dr. Zachary Wehrspan, who completed his PhD in 2022 with Dr. Adrian Elcock, was awarded the 2023 Subramanian Award for the best PhD thesis in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the past year. Dr. Wehrpsan's thesis was entitled, "Whole cell models of Escherichia coli peptidoglycan." Zach is currently a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Dr. Elcock's lab. Congratulations Dr. Wehrspan! The Subramanian Award is made possible by a gift from Dr. Alap Subramanian ('64 PhD), a student from the department, who parlayed his training with the late George Kalnitsky (and with Irving Klotz at Northwestern and both Bernard Davis and Herman Kalckar at Harvard Medical School) into a highly successful career at the Max-Planck-Institute.
Congratulations to Dr. Emily Lavering for passing her thesis defense entitled, "Examining Membraneless Compartmentalization in the Nucleolus!" Emily's mentor is Dr. Daniel Weeks. Following graduation, Emily will be starting a faculty position at the University of Michigan-Flint.
Congratulations to Hailey McCoy-Munger, a Biomedical Engineering major in the laboratory of Dr. Lori Wallrath, for being awarded a Research Supply Grant from the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates (ICRU). Hailey will be testing natural product anti-oxidants for effects on a fruit fly model of a rare eye disease. Great job Hailey!
The front cover of the April 15, 2023 issue of the Journal of Molecular Biology features the work of the Dr. Todd Washington. Drawn by Dr. Maria Spies, the cover refers to the article in Volume 435, Issue 4, 28 February 2023, 167946 by Ling et al. titled "Fork-remodeling helicase Rad5 preferentially reverses replication forms with gaps in the leading strand." The illustration highlights the work carried out by Justin Ling on the mechanism by which a DNA motor Rad5 recognizes, and processes stalled DNA replication forks. Congratulations to the Washington laboratory and Maria Spies on some beautiful work!
Congratulations to the laboratory of Dr. Sheila Baker for their new publication in the Frontiers of Molecular Neuroscience entitled, "Mouse all-cone retina models of Cav1.4 synaptopathy!" Read the full article at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnmol.2023.1155955/full .
Congratulations to BMB undergraduate student Brenna Powers for being selected as a recipient of an Ishan and Adil Jain Travel Award! Brenna will use the award to attend a scientific conference of her choice. Mentor: Dr. Lori Wallrath The Ishan and Adil Jain Travel Award is sponsored by the UI Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology.