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Eli McDonald wins Karpay Award

Nov. 10, 2023—Congratulations to Eli McDonald, of the Meiler and Plate Labs, for being named the 2024 recipient of The Karpay Award in Structural Biology. “I am truly honored by this recognition,” Eli said. Eli has worked in the Meiler and Plate labs for four and a half years studying Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) using...

Is DZA the new DNA? Structural and functional studies of a novel artificial pairing system

Nov. 3, 2023—Xeno nucleic acids (XNAs) are artificial pairing systems that replace the traditional deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) system present in most organisms. XNAs are of particular interest in the discovery and development of therapeutics as synthetic molecules offer a wider range of metabolic stability, uptake, distribution and binding partners compared to native oligonucleotides. One of the most...

CSB Symposium 2024 speakers confirmed

Nov. 2, 2023—The CSB invites you to a day of exciting research, collaboration and networking on Thursday, March 28, 2024! CSB Symposium 2024 features talks from preeminent scientists engaged in cutting-edge research. The lineup of speakers includes Nozomi Ando, James Fraser, Jeanne Hardy and Andrej Sali as well as short talks by CSB junior faculty. Events also...

CSB Cryo-EM Directors receive Research Excellence Award

Sep. 29, 2023—Melissa Chambers and Scott Collier were recently recognized with the Research Excellence Award at the 2023 Fall Staff Assembly. The Cryo-EM co-directors were honored for their research support, which has made a significant impact on the process of discovery and the pursuit of knowledge at Vanderbilt. They created a road map for the future of...

A glimpse into higher-order mRNP assemblies

Sep. 29, 2023—In eukaryotic cells, mRNA is transcribed in the nucleus. Protein factors rapidly bind to newly transcribed mRNA to form a messenger ribonucleoprotein (mRNP), which is exported to the cytoplasm for translation. One complex in humans vital for the formation and export of mRNPs is the transcription-export complex (TREX). TREX consists of the THO complex, an...

2024 Karpay Award: Call for applications

Sep. 20, 2023—The Karpay Award Committee is now soliciting applications for the 2024 Karpay Award in Structural Biology. This award was established in 2010 to commemorate Dr. Anne Karpay, whose studies were focused on membrane protein structural biology under the guidance of Professors Chuck Sanders and Tina Iverson. Dr. Karpay’s career ended prematurely following a 4-year battle...

On the origins of pentose sugars in everninomicin D biosynthesis

Sep. 20, 2023—Everninomicins are a family of naturally produced oligosaccharides, some of which exhibit ribosome-targeting antibiotic activity. Everninomicin A (EVA) was developed into late-phase clinical trials as an antibiotic but eventually pulled due to toxicity concerns. Toxicity was attributed to aggregates in the formulations, likely caused by π-stacking interactions from flanking aromatic rings in EVA. Current research...

CSB researchers receive funding for novel research

Sep. 20, 2023—The American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) recently announced the formation of Peer Imaging Clusters (PIC) to receive collaborative research grants to pursue novel research projects as part of the PAIR-UP Imaging Science program for Black imaging scientists. Jamaine Davis leads a PIC that includes fellow CSB researcher Steven Damo, Vanderbilt assistant professor and researcher...

MOE training sessions set for August, September & October

Aug. 11, 2023—Molecular Operating Environment (MOE) software users can participate in training sessions for small molecule virtual screening, fragment-based drug design and peptide modeling, conformational searching and docking over the next three months. Mauricio Rodriguez, of Chemical Computing Group, will lead the training sessions via Zoom. MOE enables a wide range of molecular modeling methods inside a...

Clicking into place with paramagnetic NMR restraints

Jul. 14, 2023—Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is an incredibly powerful technique for determining protein structure. A complete dataset of chemical shifts (CS) and nuclear Overhauser effects (NOEs) obtained from NMR can be used to determine structural models of a protein of interest. In the case of integral membrane proteins, however, there is a lot of difficulty in...

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