Karen Davis

Amino acid peptides can exist in cis and trans conformations, with most heavily favoring the latter. Proline, however, is unique among amino acids in that its peptide bonds can stably populate both conformations. The exchange, or isomerization, between cis and trans proline conformations is a relatively slow process which… Read More

Rachana Tomar, Research Assistant, Stone Lab Rachana Tomar is a research assistant in the Stone lab. She spends her days unraveling the mysteries of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and its knack for causing mutations that can lead to cancer. When she clocks out, Rachana trades her lab coat… Read More

The Vanderbilt Center for Structural Biology and the Center for Applied AI in Protein Dynamics invite you to Bridging Atoms and Algorithms: A Symposium on AI and Structural Biology. The symposium promises exciting research, collaboration and networking that navigates the intersection of AI and Structural… Read More

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is a leading international center for research and education. As part of its mission, each year CSHL organizes 30 advanced technical science courses, with organizers, instructors and participants from all over the world. CSHL is offering a course in macromolecular crystallography October… Read More

Nominations for the 2025 Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar are invited now through June 27, 2025. Candidates for the Vanderbilt Prize Student Scholar are graduate students in biomedical sciences at Vanderbilt (Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. track) who have completed the qualifying exam and have at least one year… Read More

Prashant Singh, Senior Research Associate, Iverson Lab Prashant Singh, is a Senior Research Associate in the Iverson Lab. He’s getting used to the spotlight from his recent appearance on the YouTube channel SmarterEveryDay. However, he’s still the down-to-earth Prash, as he’s known… Read More

Cellular function relies on the nanoscale organization of molecular components. Pre-synaptic, post-synaptic and cell adhesion proteins within the synapse are carefully organized in nanostructures to facilitate the transmission of information between neurons, a process which is essential for synaptic plasticity, learning and memory formation. However, the precise structural arrangement of… Read More

Understanding how proteins get from point A to point B is top of mind for Stephanie Wankowicz, assistant professor of molecular physiology and biophysics. The Wankowicz lab conducts research on how entropy, a measure of the tendency toward disorder or randomness within a system, shifts when a protein… Read More

Katherine Stefanski, PhD, Sanders Lab Sanders Lab Postdoc Katherine Stefanski’s lab motto might be “a place for everything and everything in its place.” Outside the lab she likes to wreak a bit of havoc in Smashville! That is, when it doesn’t get in the way of a… Read More

Nuclear receptors (NRs) are a group of transcription factors that control gene expression in response to endogenous metabolites and synthetic ligands. Ligands bind the C-terminal ligand-binding domain (LBD) of NRs which is widely believed to alternate between transcriptionally active and repressive states and be stabilized upon ligand binding. Various X-ray… Read More