Lab News
Tretyakova Lab Social Media Feed
February 17, 2024
Lots of fun was had during the lab's outing to the Roseville Oval Ice Skating Rink. It was also a learning experience for the lab's many first time skaters. We look forward to returning in future years to sharpen our skills!
February 14, 2024
We are proud to announce that Allysha O'Donnell has passed her Oral Preliminary Exam with all reservations removed! Huge congratulations to her as she continues her exciting work in identifying novel binders to N6-methyladenine in DNA utilizing affinity proteomics.
January 18, 2024
Congratulations to Joe McPherson and Tyler Karow on winning the 3rd place at the Epigenetics Consortium Flash Talk Competition!
January 16, 2024
The Tretyakova research group welcomes new Ph.D. students. We are excited to have you join!
Yuli Monatukwa officially joined the Tretyakova research group. Yuli is a first-year Chemistry student.
Sodeeq Babalola officially joined the Tretyakova research group. Sodeeq is a first-year Chemistry student. His research is focused on the discovery and characterization of PROTACs and molecular glues for the TET family of enzymes.
Ryan Friess officially joined the Tretyakova research group. Ryan is a first-year Medicinal Chemistry student. He is researching the effects of transient TET inhibition on CAR T cell immunotherapy.
May 26, 2023
Natalia recently presented a poster "The role of TET proteins in lung cancer" at the "Precision Cancer Medicine for the Evolving Cancer Genome and Epigenome" in Lucca, Italy
Natalia will be attending the Gordon conference "Chromatin modifications in health and disease" held June 11-16 at Bryant Univ in RI.
She will give a talk "N6-methyl-dA a novel DNA epigenetic mark in the brain"
May 20, 2023
Tretyakova Group welcomes new Ph.D. students
Allysha O'Donnell officially joined the Tretyakova research group. Allysha is a first-year Chemistry student. Allysha is developing quantitative HPLC methods to quantify peptides for the adductomics project and conducting affinity proteomics for N6-methyladenine in DNA.
Joe McPherson officially joined the Tretyakova research group. Joe is a first-year Medicinal Chemistry student and is co-advised by Dr. Pomerantz. Joe's research project centers on developing a new fragment ligand for the Bromodomain and PHD-finger containing transcrip-tion factor (BPTF) PHD.
Tyler Karow officially joined the Tretyakova research group. Tyler is a first-year Chemistry student. His research focuses on the design and development of Tet inhibitors.
Cesar Iturerere Cyuzuzo officially joined the Tretyakova research group. Cesar is a first year Molecular Pharmacology student. His research focuses on DNA-protein cross-linking in the brain and its role in aging and AD.
February 21, 2023
Lab Alumni highlights: Erin Michaelson-Richie was recently promoted to Principal Chemist position at Boston Scientific. Congratulations, Erin!
February 20, 2023
The Tretyakova lab welcomes new members:
Allysha O'Donnell is a first year Chemistry student. Allysha is originally from CA.
Joe McPherson is a first year Medicinal Chemistry student. Joe is originally from North Carolina.
Qi Zhang is a new postdoctoral associate. She received her Ph.D at the University of Wisconsin-MIlwaukee.
Tyler Karow is a Chemistry rotation student.
Marlon Oviedo Alfonso is a new undergraduate student working with Abdur on Tet project.
February 19, 2023
Tretyakova group Ski outing last Sunday! Pictures coming soon...
February 16, 2023
We have initiated a new research area: Epigenetic mechanisms in infertility. Specifically, we are investigating how environmental exposure to heavy metals can cause infertility by interfering with epigenetic marks on DNA and histone proteins. A new NIH grant application was submitted earlier this month.
February 15, 2023
Josh Gann has accepted the offer to join the PhD program in chemical biology at Vanderbilt University - congrats, Josh!
January 30, 2023
Professor Gunnar Boysen (University of Arkansas) is visiting the Tretyakova lab this month. He is working with Erik and Alex to develop quantitative methods for hemoglobin adducts as part of our exposome project.
October 14, 2022
Big congratulations to Dr. Andrew Rajczewski for an outstanding PhD defense. You can find Dr. Rajczewski at his new position at the Center for Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics in St. Paul, MN.
August 31, 2022
Alex, Sang, Andrew, Luke, and Natalia traveled to the ACS Fall 2022 national meeting in Chicago.
Alex, Luke, and Natalia at the convention hall entrance.
The beautiful Chicago skyline.
Andrew presenting his poster "Comparing bottom-up proteomics and the FIRE methodology for untargeted protein adductomics".
Alex gave a spoken presentation entitled "Controlling protein glycation with spatiotemporal control".
Luke won the Division of Chemical Toxicology Outstanding Poster Presentation with his poster entitled "Repair of Cisplatin-induced DNA-Protein Crosslinks".
Well done Luke!
Natalia gave a talk "Epigenetic marks of DNA and their role in lung cancer" at the Founders Award Lecture & Symposium.
Sang and his poster entitled "DNA Demethylation Machinery with Substrate-Mimetic Ten-Eleven Translocation Dioxygenases Inhibitors".
August 12, 2022
A great job by our undergrad summer research team presenting their work! We will miss having you around.
Luke (left) and Jahan (right) with Jahan's work on radiation-induced DNA-Protein Crosslinks
Sang presents his work on TET inhibitor screening and synthesis
Holly and Freddys with Holly's work on Remdesivir's effect on SARS-CoV-2
August 4, 2022
Congratulations to Dr. Qiyuan Han for an exemplary PhD defense. Best of luck to you in San Diego!
July 15, 2022
Big congratulations to Dr. Caitlin Jokipii Kreuger for an outstanding PhD defense. Best of luck to you in your future endeavors.
June 28, 2022
Congratulations to Freddys for giving an excellent third year seminar!
May 3, 2022
Congratulations to Alex for his excellent performance!
February 24, 2022
Congratulations to Erik Moran for passing his preliminary oral exam today!
October 11, 2021
Our manuscript Site-Specific 5-Formyl Cytosine Mediated DNA-Histone Cross-Links: Synthesis and Polymerase Bypass by Human DNA Polymerase η is now in press in Angewandte Chemie
October 1, 2021
Our manuscript "Quantitative NanoLC/NSI+-HRMS Method for 1,3-Butadiene Induced bis-N7-guanine DNA-DNA Cross-Links in Urine" is now in press in Toxics
September 17, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Suresh Pujari on his new job! He will be starting his new position as Research Scientist at ADM in Decatur, IL on September 20th.
September 15, 2021
Alex Hurben officially joins the Tretyakova group full time!
August 25, 2021
Congratulations to Dr. Vijay Kumar on his new job! He will be starting his new position as Senior Scientist at Organix Inc in Woburn, MA on September 2nd.
August 23, 2021
Dr. Tretyakova and Caitlin Jokipii Krueger attended the ACS Fall 2021 National Meeting in Atlanta this week.
Dr. Tretyakova is the chair of the Division of Chemical Toxicology and gave two talks titled "DNA protein crosslinks: DNA lesions or epigenetic regulators" and "Adventures of a chemist in toxicology: DNA adducts, epigenetic deregulation, and proteins trapped on DNA strands".
Caitlin presented a poster titled "Endogenous versus exogenous sources of monohydroxy-3-butenyl and dihydroxybutyl mercapturic acid metabolites and N7-(1-hydroxy-3-buten-2-yl) guanine DNA adducts" which won a poster award from the Division of Chemical Toxicology.
August 3, 2021
Congratulations to Freddys Rodriguez for passing his preliminary oral exam today!
July 23rd, 2021
The Tretyakova group had our annual summer picnic at Lake Nokomis this weekend!
July 1, 2021
Congratulations to Nicholas Weirath for passing his preliminary oral exam today!
June 17, 2021
Congratulations to Joshua Gann for receiving the PSM Wayland Noland Scholarship from the College of Science and Engineering!
June 16, 2021
Congratulations to Rachel Moniz! Her team placed first in the National ACCP Clinical Research Challenge. They will present their research at the 2021 ACCP Annual Meeting in Phoenix this October.
June 10, 2021
Our manuscript Novel 4-Hydroxybenzyl Adducts in Human Hemoglobin: Structures and Mechanisms of Formation is now in press in Chemical Research in Toxicology
June 9, 2021
Congratulations to Alex Hurben and Andrew Rajczewski who received best presentation awards at the ACS Great Lakes Regional Meeting today!
June 7, 2021
We are excited to welcome two new undergraduate students to the lab for summer research internships!
Danielle Chew-Martinez is a rising junior at Howard University in Washington D.C. with a major in Chemistry and minors in Spanish and Biology. Danielle joins us through the UMN Life Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program (LSSURP), which offers life sciences research programs for undergraduate students who have a goal of enrolling in Ph.D and M.D./Ph.D programs.
Jack Orr is a rising senior at Iowa State University with a major in Biological Systems Engineering. Jack joins us through the UMN Summer College of Pharmacy Experience (SCoPE) Program, which aims to provide pharmaceutical career exploration opportunities and adequate technical and professional skills enhancement opportunities to prepare scholars for PhD and PharmD program entry.
June 3, 2021
Our manuscript "Translesion Synthesis Past 5-Formylcytosine-Mediated DNA-Peptide Cross-Links by hPolη Is Dependent on the Local DNA Sequence" is now in press in Biochemistry
May 28, 2021
Congratulations to Christopher Chao on his new job! He starts as Development Scientist I at Beckman Coulter in Chaska, Minnesota on Tuesday!
May 27, 2021
Congratulations to Caitlin Jokipii Krueger for receiving the Ted Rowell Graduate Fellowship! The fellowship is given to full-time College of Pharmacy PhD graduate students who are conducting research in basic pharmaceutical sciences with an emphasis in nutrition or drug delivery systems.
May 12, 2021
Congratulations to Spencer Hutchins for graduating with his B.S. in Chemistry! Spencer will starting an M.S. in Chemical Engineering program at UC Berkeley in the Fall.
March 8, 2021
Our manuscript "Ethnic Differences in Excretion of Butadiene-DNA Adducts by Current Smokers" is now in press in Carcinogenesis.
April 26, 2021
Congratulations to Rachel Moniz for receiving the Melendy Summer Research Scholarship from the College of Pharmacy! This scholarship provides funding for Rachel's summer research in the Tretyakova lab.
April 2, 2021
Congratulations to Joshua Gann for receiving the Heisig/Gleysteen Summer Research Fellowship from the Department of Chemistry! This fellowship provides funding for Joshua to conduct research full time in the Tretyakova lab over the summer.
March 8, 2021
Congratulations to Jenna Thomforde on her new job! This week she starts as Development Scientist II at Beckman Coulter in Chaska, Minnesota.
February 4, 2021
Our manuscript "Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Pyrrolidine Functionalized Nucleoside Analogs" has been published in Medicinal Chemistry Research.
February 1, 2021
Alex Hurben officially joins the Tretyakova group. Alex is a 4th year Medicinal chemistry student and is co-advised by Prof. Todd Doran. His project employs photoactivated probes and MS based proteomics to investigate the role of protein damage in Parkinson's Disease.
January 10, 2021
Erik Moran officially joins the Tretyakova group. Erik is a first year Chemistry graduate student. His project employs isotope labeling techniques to distinguish between endogenous and exogenous DNA adducts.
January 1, 2021
Natalia is named as the new Chair of the ACS Division of Chemical Toxicology. In this capacity, she will lead all Division activities including organization of national meetings, fundraising, and outreach.
December 14, 2020
Congratulations to Jenna Thomforde who successfully defended her MS thesis "DNA-Protein Cross-links: Formation, Repair, and Inhibition of DNA replication". Nice job Jenna!
December 11, 2020
Congratulations to Jenna Fernandez who successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis "Epigenetic Mechanism in Lung Cancer Development"
Jenna is heading to the Mayo Clinic where she will work as a research fellow at the Center for Personalized Medicine.
Nov 2, 2020
Welcome Cameron Durfee to our lab for a 6 week research rotation! Cameron is a first year BMBB graduate student. He received his B.S degree from University of Minnesota in Biochemistry and then had been working in Prof. Reuben Harris lab before graduate school. He will be working with Nick to investigate the effect of APOBEC on DNA methylation.
Oct 30, 2020
The Tretyakova lab has been moved to 2-230 in CCRB. We have finished most of the moving by today and we love our new space!
Oct 12, 2020
Welcome Caitlin Lichtenfels to our lab for a 4 week research rotation! Caitlin is a first yeat Medicinal Chemistry graduate student and she will be working with the epigenetics team.
September 15, 2020
The Tretyakova lab welcomes Bo Hu for a 4 week research rotation. Bo is a first year Medicinal Chemistry graduate student. He received his undergraduate degree from UC-Berkeley and his Pharm. D. degree from the University of Minnesota.
September 6, 2020
Congratulations to our postdoctoral associate Dr. Luke Erber on being selected to the NIH funded Training Research Educators in Minnesota (TREM) program. TREM is a three year future faculty postdoctoral training program that trains the next-generation of higher education faculty through a strongly mentored research and teaching program. Great job, Luke, and best wishes!
September 4, 2020
Congratulations to Caitlin Jokipii Krueger for her poster "Endogenous versus Exogenous sources of N7-(2,3,4-trihydroxybut-1-yl) guanine and N7-(1-hydroxyl-3-buten-1-yl) guanine DNA Adducts" winning an Outstanding Presentation Award in the Division of Chemical Toxicology at the 2020 ACS Fall National Meeting on August 20th, 2020
September 3, 2020
The Tretyakova lab had a socially distanced picnic at East River flats. We flew a kite, played ladder golf, bean bag toss, soccer, and football. It was a beautiful day!
July 27, 2020
The Tretyakova Lab is looking for a postdoctoral researcher. Please see the attached flyer and inquire with Dr. Natalia Tretyakova.
July 16, 2020
Natalia presented a seminar at Medicinal Chemistry Lunch and Learn on July 14. The talk was 'What is Epigenetics and Why it is Important"
July 16, 2020
Welcome Rachel Moniz to our lab! Rachel is a pharmacy student - she is working with Luke Erber to identify inter-individual differences in response to 1,3-butadiene. This is a collaboration with Ivan Rusyn at Texas A&M
July 16, 2020
Congratulations to Freddys on receiving the Chemical Biology Training Grant!
The National Institutes of Health Chemical Biology Interface Training Grant allows first-rate students to grow into accomplished professionals both in their primary area of interest (e.g., synthetic/mechanistic organic and inorganic chemistry, molecular biology, mechanistic enzymology, medicinal chemistry) and in a complementary field by cross-discipline research interactions and experiences.
July 16, 2020
Check out our new publication in Nature Scientific Reports!
link to article:
May 29, 2020
Nicholas Weirath receives the College of Pharmacy Outstanding TA Award. Congratulations Nick!
February 10, 2020
Congratulations to Dr. Suresh Pujari, who has been promoted to Research Assistant Professor within the Department of Medicinal Chemistry!
January 2020
Natalia Tretyakova and Timothy Hallstrom received the Masonic Cross-Departmental grant. Their project entitled "Regulation of 5hmC loss during retinoblastoma initiation for novel therapeutic opportunities" will receive 100 K/year for 2 years. Congrats!
January 14, 2020
Dr. Suresh Pujari gave a departmental seminar entitled: "Synthesis and biological evaluation of DNA-protein cross-links, formamidopyrimidines and Tet inhibitors".
January 6, 2020
Natalia Tretyakova was interviewed for UMN web site:
https://clinicalaffairs.umn.edu/news-events/your-genes-don%E2%80%99t-have-determine-your-future
Dec 2019
Nicholas Weirath and Freddys Rodriguez (Medicinal Chemistry) joined our lab! Welcome! :)
October 28, 2019
Today is Lorena's last day in our lab. Lorena Ndreu is a visiting scientist from Stockholm University who has been working in our lab for the past 7 months. She has been working on a project involving contact allergies, a chronic condition affecting approximately 20% of the general population. It is caused by electrophilic compounds (haptens) that modify skin proteins by forming covalent bonds with their nucleophilic moieties, thereby triggering the immune system. Her work here has been focusing on exploring the human serum albumin and human hemoglobin adductome in contact allergy, both qualitatively and semi-quantitatively. Along with her advisor, Isabella Karlsson, Lorena was able to present her research at the 67th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics in Atlanta, GA! Lorena, it was great having you in lab and we will all miss you!
October 25, 2019
Congrats to Jenna Fernandez for receiving the Bighley Graduate Fellowship! The fellowship was established in 2008 by Dr. Lyle D. Bighley and Sharon Bighley as a way to support graduate students working in the biomedical health sciences. It recognizes excellence in students conducting research in laboratories with an emphasis on collaborative and interdisciplinary work.
October 21, 2019
Welcome Freddys Rodriguez (Medicinal Chemistry) to our lab! Freddys will do a 6 weeks rotation on the project "Repair mechanism of DNA protein crosslink".
October 14, 2019
Welcome Elizabeth Smithwick(Chemistry) to our lab for a rotation! Elizabeth will work with Jenna Fernandez on designing the inhibitors of TET enzyme.
September 20, 2019
Dr. Natalia Tretyakova had been awarded a grant of $2.5 million from the National Institutes of Health. This grant will fund project "DNA-Protein cross-links: cellular effects and repair mechanisms" from 2019 to 2024.
August 26, 2019
Jenna Fernandez earned a best oral presentation award for her talk "Epigenetic Changes in Alveolar Type II Lung Cells of A/J Mice Following Exposure to Cigarette Smoke and LPS" in the Division of Toxicology at the national ACS meeting in San Diego.
August 25, 2019
Jenna Fernandez, Jenna Thomforde, Natalia, and Qiyuan Han attended the national ACS meeting in San Diego.
August 13, 2019
Congrats to Amanda on her her successful Master's thesis defense! She will be starting her new position next week as an Associate Scientist at WuXi AppTec!
August 1, 2019
Congrats to Caitlin for passing her preliminary oral exam!
June 25, 2019
Congrats to Andrew for passing his preliminary oral exam!
June 17, 2019
Welcome to Nick Weirath and Kayla Vinh as they join us for a summer rotation (Med Chem)! We are happy to have you both! :)
June 2-7, 2019
Luke, Amanda, and Andrew all presented their research at the 67th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics in Atlanta, GA!
March 2019
Our new Q Exactive mass spectrometer was recently installed! We are very excited to start using it!
March 1, 2019
Welcome to Dr. Luke Erber joined our lab as a postdoc researcher!
Feb 18, 2019
Congrats to Shaofei on his successful Ph. D. thesis defense! He will start his new position in Genentech soon. Congrats, Dr. Ji!
Jan 24, 2019
Congrats to Shaofei for receiving the 2018 Chinese Government Award For Outstanding Self-Financed Students Aboard!
This award is considered the highest award given by Chinese government to the graduate student study outside China. The 500 worldwide recipients are chosen annually from over half million graduate students, based on a record of outstanding accomplishments in any discipline, making this prestigious award highly competitive. Great job, Shaofei!
