Congratulations, Sonya!
Author: Vining, Susan
Release of MCB’s new annual newsletter, Expression
These are exciting times in MCB! We have decided to share our news with you through a new annual newsletter, Expression. We chose this name from amongst words used in molecular biology that express the positive, dynamic nature of the department. Gene expression symbolizes the response of a cell to changing conditions, a moving forward […]
Professor David Knecht: ‘Breadcrumb trail’ of fatty acid drives aggressive spread of melanoma.
Melanoma is an unusually aggressive cancer which spreads or metastasizes very quickly early in the tumor development. The driver of this spread away from the primary tumor has not been well understood. Now results of a new study have shown that melanoma cells follow a ‘breadcrumb trail’ of a fatty serum component called lysophosphatidic acid […]
MCB joins in the welcome for our colleagues at the new Jackson Laboratory Center for Genomic Medicine
MCB is developing many connections with the new Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine that has just opened on the Farmington Campus. A number of MCB faculty have already submitted grant proposals with JaxGM faculty, there are internship agreements with the Applied Genomics and Microbial Systems Analysis professional science master’s programs in MCB, as well as […]
Dr. Eric May and Graduate Student Jason Pattis to run simulations on world’s fastest computer for molecular dynamics.
Through a competitive application process run by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Dr. May and Pattis have received an allocation on the Anton supercomputer. Anton is a specialized supercomputer designed by D.E. Shaw Research for the sole purpose of performing molecular dynamics simulations of biomolecules. May and Pattis will use their 50,000 node-hour allocation to compute […]
MCB Undergrads Making the News!
Click to view the NBC video. UConn students, CT Children’s medical researchers and children and their families are partnering in a novel collaboration and changing the face of medical care for kids in Connecticut. The UCONN students in the Undergraduate Research Associate Program (URAP) in the Department of Molecular & Cell Biology, work closely with […]
The 2014 Khairallah Symposium: Tuesday, October 7, 2014. Invited Seminar: “Electron Cryomicroscopy of Rotary ATPases” by Dr. John Rubinstein.
Since 1997, the Dr. Edward A. Khairallah Fund for Scholarship has supported ongoing symposia and support for graduate students pursuing degrees in biochemistry, cell biology or toxicology. This year’s Symposium will pay tribute to his late wife, Dr. Lamia H. Khairallah, and her enduring contributions to teaching and research at the University of Connecticut. It […]
Professor Burkhard’s in UConn Today
A self-assembling nanoparticle designed by a UConn professor is the key component of a potent new malaria vaccine that is showing promise in early tests. For years, scientists trying to develop a malaria vaccine have been stymied by the malaria parasite’s ability to transform itself and “hide” in the liver and red blood cells of […]
Dr. Barbara Mellone was awarded a $510,000 grant from the NSF, “Characterization of a novel, evolutionarily distinct chaperone for centromeric histone H3.”
Abstract: This research will take an evolutionary approach to understand how centromeres assemble. Centromeres are essential elements of chromosomes that are crucial for proper transmission of genetic information from cell to cell during cell division. When centromeres fail to assemble correctly, the result can be an imbalance in chromosome number whereby cells have too many […]
J. Peter Gogarten (MCB) , R. Thane Papke (MCB), and Uri Gophna (Tel Aviv University, Israel) were awarded a grant by the Unites States – Israel Binational Science Foundation to study “How selfish elements impact and reflect speciation and recombination in archaea”
ABSTRACT A major challenge in evolutionary biology is to understand the processes of divergence and diversification in microorganisms, in which genes can often be exchanged laterally and not just from parent to offspring. The proposed research will test how a special class of selfish elements, termed homing endonucleases (HEs), affects the genetic barriers that can […]