THE DEPARTMENT OF BIOCHEMISTRY AND MOLECULAR GENETICS

News Letter #6 (April 2011-February 2012)

Faculty News

Funding Update: Congratulations to the following PIs for receiving new NIH grants:

Dr. Frolov: 1R01GM093827-01A1 for 4 years Dr. Lavie: 1R01EB013685-01 for 4 years Dr. Lavie: 1R21CA155424-01 for 3 years Dr. Lau: 1R01AR061791-01A1 for 5 years

Dr. Nakamura successfully renewed 2R01GM078253-06 for next 4 years.

Dr. Hay, along with PIs from Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, was

awarded Spark Award from Chicago Biomedical Consortium. Dr. Gaponenko was awarded a pilot project grant from Chicago Developmental Center

for AIDS Research (D-CFAR). Dr. Simonovic received a 1-year grant from the American Cancer Society – IL division.

Dr. Steven Ackerman and collaborator Dr. Glenn T. Furuta (University of Colorado

Denver, School of Medicine) were jointly awarded the North American Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) Foundation/TAKEDA Research Innovation Award for their work on the development of a novel "Minimally Invasive Esophageal Inflammation Monitor for Eosinophilic Esophagitis".

Other News: Dr. Nava Segev joined our dept. from Biological Sciences as of 8/16/11. Dr. Raychadhuri was awarded the prestigious University Scholar award for 2011-2012.

The University Scholars Program provides three-year awards to six faculty members who have demonstrated superior performance in scholarly activities in both research and teaching and who show great promise for future achievements.

Dr. Colley was appointed as Dean of the Graduate College of UIC on January 19, 2012.

Dr. Steven Ackerman was honored by the International Eosinophil Society (IES) at its 7th Biennial International Symposium"Eosinophils - Forever Young" with the first IES Service Award "in recognition of his dedicated service to the IES and to the larger community of eosinophil scientists".

Dr. Nakamura has joined NIH’s MGA (Molecular Genetics A) study section.

Dr. Merrill has joined NIH’s DEVZ (Development-2) study section.

Dr. Segev is the Editor-in-Chief of a new journal that started in 2011, Cellular Logistics.

The journal covers the emerging new discipline of organization of the flow of molecules, information and energy to their destinations, inside and outside of cells. Cellular Logistics was recently accepted for inclusion in PubMed Central and welcomes research papers and reviews in the filed. For more information, check out: http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/cellularlogistics/home/

Dr. Shikano was an invited speaker at the International Conference and Exhibition on

Virology Sep. 5-7, 2011 (Baltimore) Title: Control of cell surface density of HIV coreceptor GPR15/BOB by phosphorylation-dependent 14-3-3 binding.

Dr. Lau was an invited speaker at the American College of Rheumatology annual

meeting, Nov. 5-9, 2011. Dr. Hay was an invited speaker at a Comparative Physiology workshop on April 18-19,

2011 in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Simonovic presented a talk at "The 2011 International Symposium on Aminoacyl-

tRNA Synthetases" in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 25-30, 2011. He was a session chair at the same conference.

Dr. Simonovic presented a seminar at the UIC-Center for Biopharmaceutical Technology

on Dec. 8, 2011. Title: "A peculiar genetic code reassignment event in yeast mitochondria".

Dr. Friedenson's solution to an industrial cancer problem won the only prize in an

Innocentive competition. There were 374 solutions submitted. Dr. Friedenson's recent paper in BMC cancer has been accessed well over 8000

times.This is among the top 75 most accessed papers in all of Biomed Central.

The 6th Costa Memorial Lecture will take place on May 30, 2012 and will be presented

by Klaus H. Kaestner, Ph.D., Thomas and Evelyn Suor Butterworth Professor in Genetics, Dept. of Genetics, Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

For further information on Costa Memorial Lecture please click on the link below: http://www.uic.edu/com/bcmg/Symposium/RobertCosta.html

General News

BMG Retreat Our 4th Departmental Retreat took place at the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, WI from Oct. 1 – 2, 2011. Like past retreats, it was a great success and everyone had a great time. A big ‘Thank You’ to Dr. Simonovic for organizing it! Over 70 members of the department attended the retreat and 10 talks & 30 posters were presented. Students, postdocs and faculty voted for the best posters and three poster prizes were given: 1st place - Jacob Choi (Lau lab) 2nd place - Kaitlyn Peterson (Simonovic lab) 3rd place - Mary Truscott (Frolov lab) The traditional soccer match between faculty and students was perhaps the best so far. After grueling 90 minute fight, the students prevailed 11:10. That is the second victory of the student's team in a row and the overall score is now tied 2:2. Dr. Simonovic would like to thank all of you who helped set up the retreat and those who participated.

New Employees University of Bath (UK) Honors Biochemistry Program Placement Students:

Our department has been participating in this work-study program for ~13years. For 2011, the following students had joined our department:

Luke Chisholm (Gaponenko Lab) David Corcoran (Gaponenko Lab) Mark Frost (Frolov Lab)

We welcome the following new employees:

Renata Varaljai - Visiting Research Specialist (Benevolenskaya Lab) Ninoshka Fernandes -Visiting Research Specialist (Colley Lab) Xuiqi Zhang - Visiting Research Assistant Professor (Segev Lab) Zhanna Lipatova - Visiting Research Specialist (Segev Lab) Amanda Schalk - Postdoctoral Research Associate (Lavie Lab) James Otto Meyer - Visiting Research Specialist (Gaponenko Lab) Huijun Yu - Postdoctoral Research Associate (Kaplan Lab) Alba Jene Sanz - Visiting Scholar (Benevolenskaya Lab) Boris Garnier - Postdoctoral Research Associate (Gaponenko Lab) Ben Hitchinson - Visiting Research Specialist (Gaponenko Lab) Walter Thompson - Visiting Research Specialist (Gaponenko Lab) Prashanth Bhaskar - Postdoctoral Research Associate (Hay Lab)

Student News

We welcome the following new students: Aleksandar Antanasijevic Prashant Bommi-Reddy Xinyu Chen Margaret Doboz David Ebenezer Shou Huang Joshua Martin

Awards: Sumeyye Yar (Solaro Lab) received Chancellor's Graduate Research Fellowship award

from UIC and American Heart Association Pre-doctoral fellowship award. Rachel Schmidt (Simonovic Lab) won a bronze medal and a $700 travel award in poster

competition at the "UIC-College of Medicine Research Forum" held at UIC on November 11th, 2011. The poster title: "Secrets of the terminal catalytic complex in the synthetic cycle of selenocysteine unraveled".

The following students were selected for T32 DK007739 Institutional Training grant

awarded by NIH for the period July 2011 – June 2012:

o Jennifer Harland (Nakamura Lab) o Jacob Choi (Lau Lab)

Presentations: Kaitlyn Peterson (Simonovic Lab) presented a poster titled "The crystal structure of

yeast mitochondrial threonyl synthetase provides insight into the mechanism of codon reassignment " at The 2011 International Symposium on Aminoacyl-tRNA Synthetases in Salt Lake City, Utah, Sept. 25-30, 2011.

Inventor in our midst? Brian Shy (Merrill Lab) came up with “Digits” — conductive pins that attach to the

fingertips of gloves to operate electronic devices. The invention allows you to work your iPod or cellphone without taking off your gloves. For more information, check out:

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/uicnews/articledetail.cgi?id=16049 Thesis Defenses:

Congratulations to the following students who successfully completed their Thesis Defense:

Name Lab Thesis Defense Future Plans

Janai Carr Raychaudhuri 4/29/11 M.D. program, College of

Medicine, UIC

Sang-min Jeon Hay 5/10/11 Postdoctoral Research Fellow,

Genentech, Inc.

Jennifer Kwan Hay 5/12/11 M.D. program, College of

Medicine, UIC

Jessica Gierut Tyner 5/13/11 Postdoctoral Research Fellow,

Harvard Medical School

Ansu Perekatt Tyner 6/21/11 Postdoctoral Research Fellow,

Rutgers University

Jennifer McEllin Katzen 7/13/11

Mella Rovani Katzen 7/15/11

Jessica Celligoy Caffrey 7/29/11 Employed at

Advanced BioMaterials

Youngshim Lee Gaponenko 12/6/11

Congratulations to the following newly weds!!!!

Yu Zheng (Tyner Lab) & Zebin Wang (Raychaudhuri Lab) were married on July 16, 2011.

Jason Churchill (Merrill Lab) married Jennifer Traversa on June 25, 2011.

Klavs Dolmer (Gettins Lab) & Mary Truscott (Frolov Lab) were married on July 1, 2011.

Congratulations to the following proud parents!!!!

Kristin Geiger (past member of Colley Lab) - She & her husband welcomed a baby boy, Ezra, on December 1, 2011.

Dannielle DeWaal (Hay Lab) - She & her husband welcomed a baby boy, Evan Ryker, on September 14, 2011.

Nature composes some of her loveliest poems for the microscope and the telescope. ~Theodore Roszak, Where the Wasteland Ends, 1972

DNA was the first three-dimensional Xerox machine. ~Kenneth Boulding, "Energy and the Environment"

Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds. Biochemistry is the study of carbon compounds that crawl. ~Mike Adams

A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it. Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers, 1950

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.” Paul Dirac quotes (English theoretical physicist, 1902-1984)

It is a good morning exercise for a research scientist to discard a pet hypothesis every day before breakfast. It keeps him young. Konrad Lorenz, German (Austrian-born) ethologist (1903 - 1989)

Science, in the very act of solving problems, creates more of them. ~Abraham Flexner, Universities, 1930

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. ~Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776

Equipped with his five senses, man explores the universe around him and calls the adventure Science. ~Edwin Powell Hubble, The Nature of Science, 1954

Science is a first-rate piece of furniture for a man's upper chamber, if he has common sense on the ground floor. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, 1872

It would be possible to describe everything scientifically, but it would make no sense; it would be without meaning, as if you described a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure.” - Albert Einstein