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Strage Award Goes to Douglas Theobald

March 29, 2011 By

Prof. Gregory Petsko writes:

It is with great pleasure that I announce the recipient of the 12th Annual Alberta Gotthardt and Henry Strage Award for Aspiring Young Science Faculty, Dr. Douglas Theobald of the Biochemistry Department.

Doug is one of Brandeis’ most accomplished young faculty members. Since his arrival at Brandeis, he has consistently demonstrated the ability to think deeply about some of the most fundamental problems in biology. His work on the resurrection of ancient proteins is among the most exciting research in the field of molecular evolution. Using what he terms “paleocrystallography” — in reality, a sort of Jurassic Park from ancestral molecules — he is aiming to visualize the structural changes that occur during the evolution of enzymes and protein complexes. With the high-resolution structures of reconstructed ancestral molecules, correlated with functional data from biochemical analyses, Doug will be able to test experimentally specific evolutionary hypotheses about protein evolution and gain an understanding of what functions can be rationally engineered. […] A theoretician who also has both feet firmly grounded in experiments, Doug is also a gited teacher.

The award ceremony and lecture will take place on Monday, April 11 at 1:00 pm in Gerstenzang 121. The title of Prof. Theobald’s lecture will be “Evolution of structure and function in biological macromolecules”

Filed Under: awards, Biochemistry, seminars Tagged With: , , , ,

13th Annual Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC)

February 23, 2011 By

The timing and location of this conference would seem to make it ideal for undergraduates to present their research — follow the links below if interested.

April Jewell of the NSYCC wrote:

As Chair of the Northeast Section Younger Chemist Committee (NSYCC), I would like to invite the Undergraduate and Graduate Students and Post-Doctoral Candidates from your department to participate in the 13th Annual Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC). I would appreciate it if you would forward this information on my behalf. The NSCRC will be held at Northeastern University’s Curry Student Center on Saturday, April 30th, 2011.

The Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference (NSCRC) is organized for students by students. It is devoted to the research of undergraduate, graduate, and post-doctoral chemistry students, providing a relaxed atmosphere for students to share their work. The day-long event features student poster and oral research presentations, a keynote speaker, awards, and catered lunch. The conference encourages students to network and get feedback from their peers. The 1st NSCRC was held April 24, 1999 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The deadline for abstract submission is Friday, April 8th, at 5pm. Please visit our website at nsycc.org for submission instructions.

Filed Under: events, Undergrads Tagged With: , , ,

Susan Band Horwitz (PhD ’63) receives AACR Lifetime Achievement Award

February 15, 2011 By

Susan Band Horwitz, Ph.D., will receive the Eighth AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research. Horwitz is being recognized for pioneering research in the mechanism of the anticancer drug Taxol and for contributions to the understanding of how this microtubule-stabilizing drug arrests cell division, which eventually leads to cell death, especially of cancer cells.

Horwitz received a bachelor’s from Bryn Mawr, then came to Brandeis to do her graduate studies. According to a profile in PNAS by Tinsley H. Davis,

“At that time, there were few graduate schools that were very receptive to women,” [Horowitz] recalls. “Women were not very prominent on the faculty or in the student body.” One university stood out from the others, however. Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) had just started its graduate program in biochemistry. “Brandeis was a new and exciting place, and the people there wanted it to succeed,” says Horwitz, “yet it also had a relaxed atmosphere that was really perfect for me.”

Once at Brandeis, Horwitz worked with Nathan Kaplan, chairman of the newly formed Biochemistry Department. Her Ph.D. dissertation (1963) involved bacterial metabolism of sugar alcohols.

While juggling raising children and doing part-time postdoctoral research (some things haven’t changed so much over the years!), Horwitz became interested in pharmacology and anticancer agents. She joined the faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1970, where she has remained since, currently serving as the Rose C. Falkenstein Professor of Cancer Research and co-chair of the department of molecular pharmacology.

Horwitz’s academic career has been vastly productive, in terms of research, publications and awards, but perhaps more significantly in terms of her research’s impact on millions of cancer patients worldwide. Her current research focuses on new natural products with similar mechanism to Taxol, looking for ways to enhance therapeutic value and to avoid drug resistance.

The AACR Award for Lifetime Achievement in Cancer Research was established in 2004 to honor an individual who has made significant fundamental contributions to cancer research, either through a single scientific discovery or a body of work. These contributions, whether they have been in research, leadership or mentorship, must have had a lasting impact on the cancer field and must have demonstrated a lifetime commitment to progress against cancer. Horwitz will receive the award at the Opening Ceremony of the AACR 102nd Annual Meeting.

Filed Under: awards, Biochemistry Tagged With: , , , , ,

New for Spring 2011: BCHM 155 Biochemistry Laboratory

January 3, 2011 By

This Spring, the Biochemistry Department is offering a new course, BCHM 155 Biochemistry Laboratory to be taught by Prof. Emily Westover.  This lab will meet 6 hours per week and will focus on protein biochemistry.  Students will gain skills to biochemically characterize proteins, including protein purification, enzyme kinetics, and ligand binding.  For part of each module, students will design their own experiments. Students will report their work in written and oral formats.

Filed Under: Biochemistry, teaching, Undergrads Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Spring-loading the active site of cytochrome P450

December 28, 2010 By

Enzymes differ from other catalysts in the exceptional substrate selectivity they exhibit.  However, the active sites of related enzymes are often very similar, even though different substrates are acted upon (for example in the superfamily of cytochrome P450s).  How does a given enzyme preferentially bind a particular substrate?  In a new paper appearing in the jounal Metallomics, Chemistry grad student Marina Dang and Profs. Susan Sondej Pochapsky and Thomas Pochapsky use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to identify a helical structure remote from the active site of the enzyme cytochrome P450cam that is responsive to changes in substrate.  They propose that this helix can adjust the position of residues that contact substrate in the enzyme active site, much like the spring that holds batteries in place against electrical contacts in a flashlight.

Filed Under: chemistry, grad students, labs Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Can a “chemical rope” help treat ALS?

November 22, 2010 By

In this week’s issue of PNAS, Brandeis postdoc Jared Auclair and Chemistry grad student Kristin Boggio, together with Professors Greg Petsko, Dagmar Ringe, and Jeffrey Agar discuss Strategies for stabilizing superoxide dismutase (SOD1), the protein destabilized in the most common form of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Working from the hypothesis that the mechanism of the toxicity involves dimer destabilization and dissociation as an early step in SOD1 aggregation, they looked for mechanisms to stabilize SOD1 using chemical cross-linking. Cross-linking the dimer using 2 adjacent cysteine residues results in substantial stabilization of relevant SOD1 mutants.

A "Chemical rope" stabilizes SOD1 protein. Mutations that destabilize SOD1 in motor neurons are associated with familial ALS

Read more about Prof. Agar, this research, and its potential for this technique in the treatment of ALS at Brandeis NOW

Filed Under: Biochemistry, chemistry, grad students, labs, postdocs Tagged With: , , , , , ,

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