Dan Phillips
Gogarten Lab

The Cyanobacterial dnaX intein

This week in Cell and Developmental Biology Journal Club, Josh Berthiaume will lead a discussion of “Disc and Actin Associated Protein 1 influences attachment in the intestinal parasite Giardia lamblia” by Stelle-Ogus et al., 2022.

Sønderholm, M., Kragh, K. N., Koren, K., Jakobsen, T. H., Darch, S. E., Alhede, M., Jensen, P. Ø., Whiteley, M., Kühl, M., & Bjarnsholt, T. (2017). Pseudomonas aeruginosa Aggregate Formation in an Alginate Bead Model System Exhibits In Vivo-Like Characteristics. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 83(9), e00113-17. https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.00113-17

Emma Watson
Assistant Professor, Department of Systems Biology
University of Massachusetts, Chan Medical School
Host: Andrei Alexandrescu

Chromosomal structure and function in cancer

Over 90% of cancer genomes have abnormal chromosomal composition, deviating (often significantly) from the normal 46 chromosomes in healthy cells. Chromosomes can be gained, lost, broken, and fused together during tumor genome evolution, with genomes ultimately converging on a set of features that are enriched in a tumor type-specific manner, for instance, +1q and +8q in breast cancer. We utilize in vitro approaches to model karyotype evolution in cancer and build tumor genomes in the lab from healthy diploid genomes. We use these models to uncover structural facilitators and functional drivers of these common chromosomal abnormalities in cancer.

About Dr. Watson:
Dr. Emma V. Watson obtained her B.S. in Biophysics from UConn, studying protein folding with Dr. Andrei Alexandrescu, and received her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from UMass Chan Medical School studying metabolic gene network regulation with Dr. A. J. Marian Walhout. For her thesis work, Dr. Watson received an American Heart Association fellowship and the Harold M. Weintraub Award. Dr. Watson was a Damon Runyon Postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Stephen J. Elledge’s lab at Harvard Medical School, where she uncovered oncogenic roles of chromosomal abnormalities in cancer. Dr. Watson opened her lab at UMass Chan Medical School in 2022 where she focuses on cancer genome structure and function.

Publications:

Chromosome evolution screens recapitulate tissue-specific tumor aneuploidy patterns

An aneuploidy epistasis map reveals metabolic vulnerabilities associated with supernumerary chromosomes in cancer

Watson Lab website

Claire Peterson
Lynes Lab

Distinguishing Inflammatory Diseases Using a Grating-Coupled Fluorescence Plasmonic Biomarker Signature Assay

Host and pathogen factors that influence variability of Mycobacterium tuberculosis lipid body content in sputum from patients with tuberculosis: an observational study/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666524724001083?via%3Dihub

Dr. Eric Joyce
University of Pennsylvania
Host: Jelena Erceg

From tangled mess to ordered structure: unraveling the mechanisms of 3D genome organization

My presentation will discuss our work to understand the mechanisms of genome organization. We leverage the HiDROplatform to identify and explore a noncanonical role of GSK3A, offering insights into chromatin dynamics and potential therapeutic strategies for cohesin-related disorders

About Dr. Joyce:
Eric Joyce, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Genetics and core member of the Epigenetics Institute at the Universityof Pennsylvania. Dr. Joyce conducted his postdoctoral training with Dr. Ting Wu at Harvard Medical School, where heco-developed a novel type of FISH probe called Oligopaints. Dr. Joyce’s lab continues to develop and utilize newtechnologies to interrogate chromosome structure at single-cell resolution. His lab aims to understand how thestructure of chromosomes within the nucleus is established and inherited across cell divisions, and how dysfunctionalorganization contributes to genome instability and disease. Most recently, his lab developed HiDRO, an automatedimaging pipeline to identify novel proteins that regulate genome organization.

Publications:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37438531/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36449519/

Joyce Lab

Please drop by to grab coffee, bagels, and catch up with other students in the department. We look forward to seeing you all there!

This week in Cell and Developmental Biology Journal Club, Jennifer Yang will lead a discussion of “Uncoupling of mTORC1 from E2F activity maintains DNA damage and senescence” by Daigh et al., 2024.

Garrett Skidds
Teschke Lab

Investigating a Predicted Helical Domain of P22 Scaffolding Protein

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

University of Connecticut

Announces the

Oral Dissertation Defense for the Doctoral Degree

Gabrielle E. Corso

B.S. Pennsylvania State University, 2015

Rhizosphere Protists: Isolation and Characterization of the Familiar and the Elusive

Friday, November 15, 2024

3:00 PM

BPB 131

Webex Link: https://uconn-cmr.webex.com/meet/gac15004

Major Advisor: Dr. Daniel Gage

Associate Advisor: Dr. Spencer Nyholm

Associate Advisor: Dr. George McManus

Examiner: Dr. Lindsay Triplett

Examiner: Dr. Joerg Graf

Link to Current Draft of Dissertation

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11GLcEOvbK81eWUFo06XCfMKOwbpsF-m4/view?usp=share_link

David et al. 2024. PNAS. Saccharomycotina yeasts defy long-standing macroecological patterns. https://www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10.1073/pnas.2316031121

Alison O’Neil
Wesleyan University
Host: Nathan Alder

Using iPSC to understand the role of pesticides in sporadic ALS

Summary: 90% of ALS cases are deemed sporadic and have some kind of environmental exposure link. My lab has shown through modeling of ALS with stem cell derived motor neurons that specific pesticides may play a role and act on the motor system through novel mechanisms.

Bio: BS Cell and Molecular Biology, Binghamton University (Plant proteomics)
PhD Biochemistry, Montana State (viral nanomaterials)
Post Doctoral Fellow, Harvard University (stem cell based neurodegeneration modeling)

Publication

O’Neil website

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology

University of Connecticut

Announces the

Master’s Thesis Defense

Marlene Abouaassi

Sialic acid utilization by vampire bat gut microbiota: study of a genomic island encoding a catabolic pathway

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

3:00 PM

BPB301

Major Advisor: Dr. Peter Gogarten

Associate Advisor: Dr. Joerg Graf

Associate Advisor: Dr. Dan Gage

This week in Cell and Developmental Biology Journal Club, Zayan Islam will lead a discussion of “METTL3/IGF2BP3 axis inhibits tumor immune surveillance by upregulating N6 - methyladenosine modification of PD-L1 mRNA in breast cancer” by Wan et al., 2022.

All MCB Grad students are invited to mingle and build connections!

Please bring a tray of your favorite cookies if you are able!

Makayla Leroux
Teschke Lab

Investigating portal:scaffolding protein interactions in bacteriophage P22