Author: Vining, Susan

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 […]

John Malone was invited to particpate in the New Horizons in Science symposium.

The symposium is conducted by the Royal Society of Canada, The Mexican Academy of Sciences, and the US National Academy of Science. The science academies of Canada, Mexico and the United States are working towards broader science cooperation between our countries by building relationships among future science leaders. As a first step, this joint symposium […]

Undergraduate honors student Pat Lenehan, conducting research in the laboratory of professor Barbara Mellone, is named Barry H. Goldwater scholar

Patrick J. Lenehan ’15 (CLAS), an honors student from Cheshire, Conn., is currently conducting research with Barbara Mellone, assistant professor of molecular and cell biology, on proteins and the formation of centromeres and kinetochores in Drosophila. He has also worked in the lab of Rajeswari Kasi, associate professor of chemistry, investigating the use of high-molecular […]

Dr. Strausbaugh’s “Genome Research on Mouth Fungi May Help Predict Infections” is featured in UCONN Today

Genome Research on Mouth Fungi May Help Predict Infections Using a novel genome-based approach, researchers in UConn’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and School of Dental Medicine have identified and described the community of fungi that lives in an average healthy person’s mouth. The findings will eventually help medical professionals better understand, treat, and […]