Thesis Reviews

Alexander Duckworth joined the Integrated Program in Biochemistry (IPiB) with the goal of learning more about how scientists ‘solve biomolecular structures’ — that is, how they figure out what essential components to life, such as proteins, look like. Duckworth’s research as a member of the Keck Lab revolves around genome maintenance proteins, which bind to …

Eosinophils (EOS) have broad immunomodulatory and inflammatory effects — these white blood cells are implicated in eosinophilic asthma, eradicating parasitic infections, involvement in the gut microbiome and tumor microenvironment, and more — yet scientists still don’t have a complete understanding of how they are activated, or how they release granular content and deliver their noxious …

Edrees (Eddie) Rashan became interested in the life sciences as a college sophomore. He’d heard of DNA but never really appreciated what it looked like, how it was made, or the characteristics that make it so important to life. He eventually switched majors from engineering to biochemistry to learn about biomolecules and how they function …

Insulin is secreted by the pancreas in response to elevated blood glucose levels. Insufficient amounts of insulin can result in Type II diabetes, while excess can lead to hypoglycemia — both life-threatening conditions. Sophie Lewandowski, an IPiB graduate student in the Merrins Lab, studies how pyruvate kinase fits into insulin secretion and regulation. Pyruvate kinase, …

Antibiotic resistance is one of the great public health problems of our time. Since Peyton Spreacker joined IPiB as a member of the Henzler-Wildman Lab, she has been studying the role multidrug efflux proteins play in this phenomenon. “We know that these proteins can take drugs out of bacterial cells, making them less effective,” says …

Cell survival hinges on a host of processes, one of which is DNA repair. Though research has shown that the RadD protein plays an important role in processing damaged or branched DNA in E. coli, previous efforts to demonstrate DNA unwinding activity for RadD have failed. Miguel Angel Osorio Garcia, an IPiB graduate student in …

If you’ve heard of bioethanol or biodiesel, you’ve heard about a biofuel. Adopting biofuels, which are fuels produced directly from plants or biowastes, can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. And as IPiB graduate student Nathaniel Kuch explains, converting plants into biofuels begins with understanding how to break plants down into sugars. Kuch’s Ph.D. research in …

IPiB graduate student Dana Dahhan studies how proteins are trafficked into and out of cells. She’s defending her Ph.D. research on Aug. 24.

Aidan McKenzie is defending his Ph.D. research on Aug. 29.

Aryel Clarke’s Ph.D. research focuses on a group of proteins that help maintain and remodel cellular membranes. Clarke, an IPiB graduate student in biomolecular chemistry professor Jon Audhya’s lab, says that part of what drew her to membrane remodeling was how little we know about this critical cellular function. “That we know so much about …