Our collaboration with Bradley S. Moore and Sanjoy Adak (Scripps) was featured in C&EN!

Congrats to Avital Aaron for receiving a Summer Fellowship from Division of Sciences!

Congrats to Qianyi Yang for receiving a Summer Fellowship from Division of Sciences!

Congrats to Trent Quist, Henry Thanh Nguyehn, and Alex MacNiel for receiving funding from the SPROUT funding mechanism!

Congrats to Natalie Chin for receiving the Kaplan Prize for Outstanding Research and for Defending their honors thesis project with highest honors!

Congrats to Emma Xu for receiving the Dr. Joseph Garrison Parker Prize and for Defending their honors thesis project with highest honors!

Congrats to Ken Takeoka for receiving a Summer Fellowship from Division of Sciences!

Congrats to Grace Schwartz for receiving a Summer Fellowship from Division of Sciences!

Congrats to Henry Thanh Nguyen for receiving the Fori and Robert Kay Undergraduate Research and Creative Collaborations Fellowship!

Congrats to Emma Xu for receiving a Summer Fellowship from Division of Sciences

Congrats to  Isaac Paddy for receiving the Molly W. and Charles K. Schiff Award in Science!

2021

Congrats to Natalie Chin and Felicia Deng for receiving a Summer Fellowship from the Provost Fund!

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2017

04.27.2017

Jeremy G. Koob received his BS-MS degree in Biochemistry with Highest Honors (Christine Thomas/ Maria-Eirini Pandelia).

He is the recipient of the Nathan O. Kaplan Award! Congrats!

Hepatitis B virus protein has unusual iron-sulfur cluster

C&EN Global Enterprise , 2017, Vol.95(15), p.11-11

In a step toward understanding how the hepatitis B virus (HBV) replicates and causes infection, a research team has determined that one of the virus’s four proteins may incorporate a unique iron-sulfur cluster. Team leader Maria-Eirini Pandelia reported this discovery at the ACS meeting. The protein, known simply as X, is only 154 amino acids long and is the least understood of the HBV proteins. HBV infects the liver and can cause short-term and chronic illness. Biochemists know that X interacts with a number of proteins in host cells and that it plays a role in virus infectivity, replication, and ultimately cancer formation. However, the protein’s structure and mechanism have remained elusive. Pandelia’s team started investigating X last year, after work by another group indicated that the protein incorporates iron. Elemental and spectroscopic analysis by Pandelia and colleagues shows that the protein contains a [2Fe2S] cluster when isolated in the presence of oxygen. When reduced, the cluster converts to [4Fe4S]. Exactly how the conversion occurs is unclear. Research keeps revealing more about the diversity and importance of iron-sulfur clusters in biological chemistry, commented metalloprotein spectroscopist Joshua Telser of Roosevelt University. “It’s never-ending.”

Xingchen Liu received for the Summer of 2017 the Helaine B. Allen Summer Fellowship! Congrats!

Congrats to Thalya Sylos for receiving a Summer Fellowship from Division of Sciences!