July 26, 2018
The McCully Lab has been so busy getting their summer research going that we forgot to introduce the newest lab members!
Parwana Khazi (Biology '20) and Natali Gonzalez (Biology '20) have been busy expressing and purifying our 3-helix-bundle proteins and using CD to measure their thermostability and thermodynamics. Parwana is supported by a REAL Fellowship for her project, "Impact of the hybridization of the engrailed homeodomain and an engineered variant on thermostability," and Natali is supported by a Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship for her project, "Analyzing the Thermostability of a Hybrid Protein with the Surface of Engrailed Homeodomain and the Core of a Thermostabilized Variant."
Lauren Verheyden (Biochem '20) has gotten gel shift assays running in the lab to measure how strongly our proteins bind DNA. She is supported by a DeNardo Fellowship for her project, "Thermostability and Function of Engineered Variants of a DNA-Binding Protein."
Jennifer Young (CS '18) and Catrina Nguyen (COEN '20) are both returned summer and are using molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the structural basis for thermostability in several engineered proteins. Jennifer is receiving continued DeNardo Fellowship support, and Catrina was awarded a Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship this summer for her project, "Analyzing the Dynamics of a Hybrid Protein Engineered With the Core of a Thermostabilized Protein and Surface of a Functional Protein."
Meanwhile, Emily Hamlin (Biochem '19) has been shadowing doctors in Hungary this summer, and the lab will be happy to welcome her back to research in the fall.