News

CSB Research Spotlight: X-ray Crystallography – Paving the way for ‘hypoallergen’ treatments against peanut allergies

Mar. 7, 2025—Ben Spiller, associate professor of pharmacology, and collaborators recently published two papers that dig into how peanut allergies are provoked and providing support for the use of a potential treatment option: hypoallergens. Both papers were published in February in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Read more about how the IgE antibodies’ structural, immunological...

CSB Research Spotlight: Sanders Lab – New mechanisms that cause irregular heartbeat

Mar. 3, 2025—In a recent collaboration with researchers at Northwestern University, newly-minted PhD Kathryn Butcher (Brewer) and Professor of Biochemistry and Vice Dean of Basic Sciences Chuck Sanders found that, for people with long QT syndrome, a heart condition that causes an irregular heartbeat, a more tailored approach to treatment could be more beneficial than the usual...

Greater than the sum of its parts: the role of VARP-SNX27 binding in endosomal “supercomplex” formation

Feb. 14, 2025—In cells, multi-subunit coat protein complexes are responsible for coordinating the transport of transmembrane proteins and lipid cargo between membranes. At the endosome, cargo trafficking is mediated by retromer, a heterotrimer composed of VPS26, VPS29, and VPS35. Retromer serves as a “master regulator”, recruiting machinery to help deform the membrane and sort cargo into vesicles...

CSB Student Profile: Clay Tydings

Feb. 7, 2025—Teamwork makes the dream work! Clay Tydings, of the Walker and Meiler Labs, thinks collaboration is key to not only furthering his scientific endeavors but also for achieving a personal goal. Meet Clay … What is the focus of your research and what tools/techniques do you use? I work on developing methods for modeling peptides...

Investigations into inositol phosphates: the mTOR regulators you’ve never heard of!

Jan. 31, 2025—Inositol phosphates are a family of small metabolites characterized by their different phosphorylation patterns. Inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6), the fully phosphorylated form of inositol phosphate, is found in many organisms and is the most abundant inositol phosphate in animal and plant cells. IP6 serves a wide range of functions including regulation of enzyme activity, mediation of...

Jenny Tran wins the Dr. Anne Karpay Award in Structural Biology

Jan. 23, 2025—Congratulations to Jenny Tran, of the Breann Brown lab, on being named the 2025 recipient of the Dr. Anne Karpay Award in Structural Biology. “It’s such an honor to be selected as the recipient of the Karpay Award,” Tran said. Although she completed a summer research internship with Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor David G....

Jenny Tran presents Karpay Award Seminar January 21

Jan. 17, 2025—2025 Anne Karpay Award in Structural Biology Winner Jenny Tran, of the Breann Brown lab, gives the MBTP/CSB Seminar on Tuesday, January 21, at 12:20pm in 1220 MRB3. Although in high school Jenny completed a summer research internship with Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor David Lynn at Emory University, she originally wanted to pursue architecture...

CSB Research Faculty Profile: Heather Kroh

Jan. 9, 2025—Heather Kroh, PhD, is a research assistant professor in the Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology department and currently works in the Lacy lab. With a long-standing dedication to scientific education, she participates in many mentoring and outreach programs, but her favorite activity might just be picking up pretty rocks. Meet Heather … What project are you...

A preprocessing package tailored to individual needs

Jan. 3, 2025—Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is method for determining structure that relies on tilting a microscope sample stage to collect a wide range of sample views. This unique acquisition technique is especially useful for imaging in the context of cells or intact extracellular particles, allowing researchers to study structure in a near-native environment. Subtomogram averaging (STA), a...

Unmasking antagonists: a deep dive into the structural binding poses of PPARγ ligands

Dec. 13, 2024—Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) is a ligand-regulated transcription factor located in the nucleus. Endogenous ligands, such as lipids and fatty acids, bind an orthosteric pocket in the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of PPARγ and function as agonists to activate gene expression related to adipogenesis and insulin sensitization. Synthetic small molecule ligands, including FDA-approved antidiabetic drugs,...

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