BBMB Seminar - Yang Gao, Assistant Professor, Rice University; Observing DNA synthesis by DNA polymerases: Catalysis, Fidelity Control and Drug Inhibition

Host: Scott Nelson

BBMB Seminar - Patrice Rassam, Professor at the University of Strasbourg; The Brilliant Journey through Bacterial Membranes

Host: Julien Roche

BBMB Seminar - Sheena D'Arcy, Associate Professor, UT Dallas; Allosteric Regulation of Pyruvate Kinase by CryoEM and HDX-MS

Host: Eric Underbakke

BBMB Seminar - Stupka UGRS, Iowa State University

BBMB Seminar - Scott Coyle, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Understanding and engineering cell dynamics with synthetic protein waves

Host: Dipali Sashital

BBMB Seminar - Adam Courtney, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; Rewiring signaling pathways to prevent T cell dysfunction in solid tumors

Host: Dipali Sashital

BBMB Seminar - Thomas Mansell, Associate Professor, Iowa State University; Feeding the beast: prebiotic control of engineered live biotherapeutics with synthetic biology

Host: Dipali Sashital

BBMB Seminar - Jennifer Barry, Gene Discovery Leader, Corteva Agrisciences; Plant Derived Insecticidal Proteins for Protection of Crop Plants

Host: Mark Hargrove

BBMB Seminar - Raquel Espin Palazon, Assistant Professor, Iowa State University; A matter of timing: Cell signaling dynamics during stem cell development

Host: Gustavo Macintosh

BBMB Seminar - Margaret Johnson, Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins University; Design and control of self-assembly in nonequilibrium systems

Host: Julien Roche

BBMB Seminar - William Jorgensen, Professor, Yale University; Evolution of Computer-Aided Drug Discovery

Over the last thirty years, computer modeling has evolved into an essential, widespread activity in drug discovery. The contributions of our group have been in multiple areas including virtual screening, prediction of ADME properties, and FEP-guided lead optimization. The advances were all accompanied by development of new software including the BOMB program for de novo design, QikProp for AI-based estimation of pharmacological properties and metabolites, and MCPRO for Monte Carlo simulations of protein-ligand complexes.   To pursue prospective studies, our efforts were expanded to include synthesis, biological assaying, and crystallography. Emphasis has been placed on optimization of the hits from virtual screening to yield potent, drug-like inhibitors.

BBMB Seminar - Vincenzo Venditti, Associate Professor, Iowa State University; racking the AlkB Homologues' Code: How an α-ketoglutarate conformational equilibrium controls iron accessibility, activation and substrate selection

BBMB Seminar - Amy Weeks, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin; Post- translational modification proteomics in 4D

BBMB Seminar - Philip Johnson, Professor, York University; Structure-function studies on aptamer-small molecule complexes

BBMB Seminar - Jerelle Joseph, Assistant Professor, Princeton University; Computational approaches for understanding and engineering biomolecular condensates

Abstract: 

The interior of cells contains numerous components that must be carefully organized in space to fulfill a wide range of biological functions. Unlike the more familiar membrane-enclosed compartments, biomolecular condensates exist predominantly as spherical, liquid-like droplets composed of proteins and nucleic acids. These condensates do not rely on membranes; instead, phase separation has emerged as one of the leading mechanisms to explain their spatial segregation within the cell.

BBMB Seminar - Lena Stecklberg, Assistant Professor, Columbia University; Dynamic viral RNA structures confer programmed exoribonuclease resistance

BBMB BioWIP Seminar - Ashwini Rangaraj from the GeetuTuteja Lab in the Department of Genetics, Developmental and Cell Biology

Talk Title: “Characterizing a novel regulatory element upstream of matrix metalloproteinase 9 in placental cells” 

BBMB Seminar - Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, Professor, Iowa State University; Understanding aptamers and putting them to work

BBMB Seminar - Greg Martin, Assistant Professor, Iowa State University; Beyond RTS,S: How cryo-EM is enabling next-gen malaria vaccine design

BBMB BIOWIP Seminar, Dilini Dissanayake - Toward the characterization of functional dynamics in the Human Alkbh1 enzyme

Abstract: Human Alkbh1 is a member of the AlkB family of proteins. Like other AlkB family proteins, hAlkbh1 is a Fe²⁺ and alpha-ketoglutarate-dependent dioxygenase that catalyzes oxidative demethylation of modified nucleotides and amino acids. hAlkbh1 shows activity against six different substrates such as the m⁶A in ssDNA/ bulge or bubble DNA, m³C in DNA/RNA, methylated lysine in histone H2A, m¹A in mitochondrial tRNA for the demethylation, oxidation of m⁵C in mitochondrial tRNA and lyase cleavage of AP sites in DNA. Also, hAlkbh1 has significant involvement in many cancers, metastasis, developmental defects, hypothermia, etc.