August 2023

Department of Molecular Biosciences starts a new

This academic year, the Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology at the USF College of Arts and Sciences has undergone an official name change to enhance its clarity and relevance, now being known as the Department of Molecular Biosciences. According to Dr. Marcus Cooke, the department's professor and chair, this renaming was imperative due to the unwieldy and imprecise nature of the former title, which failed to accurately represent the faculty's diverse interests and often led to confusion. The streamlined new name not only simplifies marketing efforts but also boosts consistent name recognition, proving advantageous during grant reviews, manuscript submissions, and national/international presentations, consequently elevating the department's visibility, status, and reputation. This initiative aligns with the ongoing strategic efforts to refine the department's biomedical research focus and better integrate with the university's goals. Dr. Cooke, in his capacity as the chair, has further aimed to elevate the department's prominence on a local and global scale, underscored by a meticulous review and revision of its key areas of emphasis—bacterial pathogenesis, biomedical science, genome integrity, molecular biophysics and systems biology, and STEM education. The department strives to offer students an exceptional education led by internationally acclaimed scientists, tailored to prepare them for successful careers in health sciences, pharmaceuticals, medicine, and advanced degrees, all while fostering active engagement in cutting-edge research at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Cooke also cherishes the department's collaborative and congenial environment, highlighting the remarkable camaraderie among students, staff, and faculty, all of whom possess exceptional expertise in their respective domains. Read more about this story here.

Congratulation to our PhD student Alexandra Keidel for her poster at the annual ASMS 2023 conference!

Graduate student Alexandra Keidel, from the Oxidative Stress Group, presented her research poster "Optimization of Solid Phase Extraction Pretreatment for Urinary DNA Adductomics by High Resolution Mass Spectrometry" at the 2023 ASMS conference.

Congratulation to Dr. Marcus S. Cooke

Join us in celebrating Dr. Marcus S. Cooke in this new journey as the official Chair of the Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology (CMMB) at USF.

The CMMB department aims to help prepare students for professional careers in the areas of cellular and molecular biology by providing an in-depth curriculum led by professional, advanced science faculties. The department offers the following research areas: Genome Integrity and Mechanisms of Aging, Bacterial Pathogenesis and Resistance, Structural and Computational Biology. Our department is home to both undergraduate and graduate students whom we aim to educate and train to pursue scientific knowledge in rigorous research programs both within the department and in collaboration between faculties and universities.

Paper accepted in Nature Protocols with an impact factor of 17.021 

The comet assay is a versatile method to detect nuclear DNA damage in individual eukaryotic cells, from yeast to human. The types of damage detected encompass DNA strand breaks and alkali-labile sites (e.g., apurinic/apyrimidinic sites), alkylated and oxidized nucleobases, DNA–DNA crosslinks, UV-induced cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and some chemically induced DNA adducts. Depending on the specimen type, there are important modifications to the comet assay protocol to avoid the formation of additional DNA damage during the processing of samples and to ensure sufficient sensitivity to detect differences in damage levels between sample groups. Various applications of the comet assay have been validated by research groups in academia, industry and regulatory agencies, and its strengths are highlighted by the adoption of the comet assay as an in vivo test for genotoxicity in animal organs by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The present document includes a series of consensus protocols that describe the application of the comet assay to a wide variety of cell types, species and types of DNA damage, thereby demonstrating its versatility. Find here !

Congratulations to Nader Abdalla!

Our undergraduate researcher Nader Abdalla has been admitted to the Toxicology Mentoring and Skills Development Training program. This is a 5 year program fuded by NIH that allows the opportunity for undergraduates from underrepresented groups to further develop their careers. Accepted participants are given the opportunity to attend toxicology courses to provide a deeper introduction to the discipline of toxicology.  Find out some more information about the type of information offered by TMSDT.

Paper accepted in the Journal of Visual Experiments

Cells are continually exposed to agents arising from the internal and external environments, which may damage DNA. 

DNA damage can arise from continual exposure to internal and external factors. This paper demonstrates our high-thorughput comet assay method to better study these endogenous and exogenous affect to our DNA. To read more on our method, read the article published in JoVe here.

Video coming soon!

Ji., Y., Karbaschi, M., Abdulwahed, A., Quinente, NS., Evans, MD. and Cooke, MS. (2022) A High-Throughput Comet Assay Approach for Assessing Cellular DNA Damage. Journal of Visual Experiments. 183.

Undergraduate Nader Abdala selected to receive an EMGS Undergraduate Research Scholarship

The Awards & Honors Committee of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society (EMGS) has selected Nader Abdalla to receive one of the EMGS Undergraduate Research Scholarship Program Awards for 2022. Undergraduate students are a critical part to the educational system and an important source for future STEM leaders. The scholarship provides funding and resources to encourage underrepresented undergraduate students to pursue scientific research, as well as attend EMGS annual meetings. The 13th International Conference on Environmental Mutagens and 53rd Annual Meeting of the EMGS will be held on August 27-September 1, 2022 in Ottawa Canada. 

University of South Florida welcomes Dr. Marcus S. Cooke as an affiliate Professor of the College of Public Health

The College of Public Health at USF has added Dr. Cooke as an Affiliate Professor.

Dr. Cooke joins the University of South Florida!

Dr. Marcus Cooke and colleagues open the door to understanding human disease through nucleic acid ‘adductomics’

Dr. Cooke says limiting our studies to just DNA adducts is “like trying to describe a room by only looking through the keyhole. If we were able to examine the totality of nucleic acid adducts, then this would be like opening the door to that room.” Ninety percent of the risk of developing a disease comes from exposure to certain elements in our environment, such as pollution, sunlight, tobacco use, or food components, according to USF College of Arts and Sciences professor and Department of Molecular Biosciences chair Dr. Marcus Cooke. Read more about this here.

Congratulations to Laura Deloso  for her poster at the Castle Conference!

The Raymond N. Castle Student Research Conference was initiated as a means to encourage undergraduate and graduate students to present their scientific data in a friendly atmosphere. The Castle Conference is organized by the students and provides the opportunity for young scientists to develop the necessary communication skills to excel in the future. Our undergraduate student Laura Deloso, from the Oxidative Stress Group, presented her research poster "Optimization of Solid Phase Extraction for Urinary DNA Adductomics" at the student-led 2023 Castle Conference.

Congratulations to Nader Abdalla for his first publication!

Following on from his recent EMGS undergraduate research award, and his acceptance to the ToxMSDT program, Nader recently achieved his first publication thanks to a Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology class with Dr. Rick Pollenz. His publication explores the genome of CaiB, a DR Cluster Actinobacteriophage. Find the full publication here.

Invited to publish in a special edition of Photochemistry and Photobiology in honour of Prof. Jean Cadet

Abstract. Some early reports demonstrate that levels of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers (CPD) may increase after UVR exposure had ended, although these observations were treated as artifacts. More recently, it has been shown unequivocally that CPD formation does occur post-irradiation, with maximal levels occurring after about 2–3 h. These lesions have been termed “dark CPD” (dCPD). Subsequent studies have confirmed their presence in vitro, in mouse models and in human skin in vivo. Melanin carbonyls have a role in the formation of dCPD, but they have also been observed in amelanotic systems, indicating other, unknown process(es) exist. In both cases, the formation of dCPD can be prevented by the presence of certain antioxidants. We lack data on the spectral dependence of dCPD, but it is unlikely to be the same as for incident CPD (iCPD), which are formed only during irradiation. There is evidence that iCPD and dCPD may have different repair kinetics, although this remains to be elucidated. It is also unknown whether iCPD and dCPD have different biological properties. The formation of dCPD in human skin in vivo has implications for post solar exposure photoprotection, and skin carcinogenesis, with a need for this to be investigated further.

Professor Jean Cadet received his PhD in chemistry from the University of Grenoble and continued his research on radiolytic damage and oxidatively generated, radiation- and photo-induced damage to DNA. Read more on his contributions to research in DNA damage and repair here.

Find our published paper here.

Lawrence, KP., Delinasios, G., Premi, S., Young, AR. and Cooke, MS. (2022) Perspectives on Cyclobutane Pyrimidine Dimers – Rise of the Dark Dimers. Photochemistry and Photobiology. 98, 609 - 616. 

Dr. Cooke is appointed as Associate Chair of the Cell Biology, Microbiology, and Molecular Biology at USF.

We are extremely proud of the leader of OSG, Dr. Marcus S. Cooke, for having the ooportunity to serve as Associate Chair for the Department of CMMB at USF. We look forward to his continued guidance in our lab as well as this new chapter for him!

CMMB researchers ranked in the top 2% in the world by Stanford University

Stanford University recently released a study placed 54 faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida among the top 2% of cited scientists in the world. This ranking, which is considered globally prestigious, which included Dr. Marcus S. Cooke. 

Congratulations Dr. Cooke!

Dr. Marcus S. Cooke joins the Cancer Biology and Evolution Program 

The Cancer Biology and Evolution (CBE) Program at the Moffitt Instituion focused on understanding tumor development, progression, and resistance from a an evolutionary perspective. Join us further congratualating Dr. Cooke in joining the CBE program.