News
Dr. Karen Allen Featured in C&EN
From BU Chemistry News:Professor Karen Allen‘s work with Dr. Barbara Imperiali of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and their research groups work on the 2.7-Å-resolution crystal structure of a phosphoglycosyl transferase called PglC were featured in C&EN Structural Biology on May 23rd, 2018.
As Co-PI on a National Institute of Health grant, Dr. Allen and Dr. Imperiali’s work on PglC has allowed them to uncover the enzyme’s unique mechanism, which permits hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules to interact without ever having to leave their natural environments.
Sarah Yunes Receives Outstanding Teaching Fellow Award for Biology, 2017/2018
MCBB Ph.D. candidate, Sarah Yunes, of the Hansen lab was awarded the Outstanding Teaching Fellow of the Year for Biology, academic year 2017/2018. Sarah has served for eight semesters as a teaching fellow in Biology, including for BI 107 and 108 (Biology 1 and 2), two of the largest and broadest introductory courses on campus, and for BB 522 (Molecular Biology Laboratory), a highly interactive upper-level hands-on course.
Her evaluations from students emphasize the clarity of her explanations and offer feedback such as “passionate about teaching” and “supportive and engaging.” In sum, Sarah’s efforts over the last several years have contributed greatly to the success of the teaching mission of the Department of Biology. In the words of her teaching mentors Dr. Spilios and Dr. Gilmore, “her service to the department is unparalleled.”
Beyond her teaching accomplishments, Sarah’s own research, focused on the role of the transcription factor LSF and its role in cell cycle control and oncogene addiction in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), emphasizes novel and exciting approaches to precisely manipulate LSF activity at specific points during the cell cycle, and is oriented toward identifying the mechanism underlying HCC “addiction” to LSF, since blocking LSF function blocks the carcinoma progression. Ultimately, Sarah’s work will contribute to novel therapies to combat this type of cancer.
Dr. Catherine Klapperich’s Research Featured in BU Research
Read the full article in BU Research
Dr. Kathleen Morgan’s Collaborative Work Featured in BU Today
Dr. Kathy Morgan, a professor at Sargent College and Dr. Tyone Porter, pose for a photo on Wednesday, December 20, 2017.
The team are working at “the interface of the cardiovascular system and the brain.”
Photo by Jackie Ricciardi for Boston University Photography
Read the full article "Hearts, Minds, and Microbubbles" in BU Today: http://www.bu.edu/today/2018/hearts-minds-and-microbubbles/
Dr. Beeler Awarded a $975k Grant from DARPA
Assistant Professor Aaron Beeler was recently awarded a $975,000 grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) titled “High-Throughput Chemistry Platform (HTCP) for Reaction Screening.” The funding, which will last a year, will help Professor Beeler and his Co-PI’s, Professors Scott Schaus andJohn Porco of Chemistry and Professor Eric Kolaczyk of Mathematics, develop a proof-of-concept High-Throughput Chemistry Platform (HTCP) capable of interrogating unexplored chemical “reaction space”. The platform will be used to significantly expand the scope and knowledge around known reactions and to discover unknown transformations through reaction discovery.
Dr. Vegas Awarded a Two-Year Grant from Combined Therapeutics
Assistant Professor Arturo Vegas was recently awarded a $255,000 grant from Combined Therapeutics. This nontraditional corporate funding, which will last for 2 Years, will help Professor Vegas as he aims to reduce the immunogenicity and alter the tissue tropism of viral-based therapies.
Dr. Douglas Densmore Named Top-Five Innovator by Design Automation Conference
Read the full article in the Fall 2017 Bostonia.
Dr. Emili Heads New Center for Network Systems Biology
Read the full article in BU Today.
Dr. Khalil Featured Speaker at Nexus of Life Sciences and Engineering Symposium
Dr. Sgro Receives Moorman-Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Professorship
From the ENG News post by Joel Brown, BU Today:
Allyson Sgro, a College of Engineering assistant professor of biomedical engineering, has been chosen for this year’s Moorman-Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Professorship, which supports the work of a junior faculty member whose scholarship spans more than one school or college. Sgro’s work bridges biology and engineering and draws on her background in chemistry and biophysics, exploring how cells work together and make group decisions to perform complex behaviors such as assembling into a tissue, forming a biofilm, or healing a wound.
“I have some really fantastic students who are excited about where this work is taking us, and I’m hoping to invest the stipend in training them, to give them the kind of education I had, to go to conferences and meet people from different fields,” says Sgro, who joined BU in January and whose lab recently moved into the new Center for Integrated Life Sciences & Engineering. Sgro says her professorship, funded by BU trustee Ruth Moorman (CAS’88, SED’89,’09) and her husband, Sheldon Simon, “will also allow us to investigate ideas we have that are a little unconventional between fields, that we don’t have more conventional support for, to push into new areas.”
Sgro received a master’s and a PhD in chemistry from the University of Washington and completed postdoctoral training at Princeton.