Elijah Bring Horvath
Email address: eli.bringhorvath@utah.edu
Lab: Winter
Background:
Eli obtained his Bachelor's in Cell and Molecular Biology from Boise State University in 2019, where he researched the biology and metastatic process of ovarian cancer. He joined the University of Utah Biosciences PhD program that same year through the Molecular Biology track. In 2020, he joined the lab of Dr. Jaclyn Winter, joint with Dr. Matthew Mulvey where he studies mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and new antibiotic drug discovery and development.
Research Interests:
Microbial genomics, antibiotic development, antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens, natural product chemistry and biosynthesis, synthetic biology, bioinformatics.
Awards:
ARUP Graduate Research Fellowship. 3i Graduate Research Fellowship.
Albebson Lim
Email address: albebson.lim@pharm.utah.edu
Lab: Schmidt Lab
Background:
Albeb grew in the island of Oriental Mindoro in the Philippines. He got his undergraduate degree in Biology Major in Microbiology at the University of the Philippines Los Banos where he studied the bacterial community structure of Mt. Makiling soil. After graduating, he got a job as a microbiologist and cell biologist at the Marine Science Institute of the University of the Philippines Diliman under the supervision of Dr. Gisela P. Concepcion. He also got his Master’s degree in Marine Science specializing in Marine Biology at the same institution with his thesis focusing on the identification and characterization of a novel bacterium from a turrid snail. In 2018, he moved to Utah to be a Research Scholar under the Philippine Mollusk Symbiont – International Cooperative Biodiversity Group Project where he worked on isolation and characterization of mollusk-associated bacteria, and development of novel assays for screening compounds for their antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-pain properties. During this stint, he worked under the supervision of Drs. Eric W. Schmidt, Margo Haygood, Lou Barrows, and Randy Peterson. He is currently working on his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry at the lab of Dr. Eric Schmidt with his dissertation focusing on elucidating the mechanism of action of turnercyclamycins. In his free time, he enjoys playing his guitar and making music, playing badminton, as well as doing classic Utah stuff such as climbing and snowboarding.
Research Interests:
Microbial natural products, microbial chemical ecology, antibiotic, antibiotic resistance, infectious disease
Awards:
Invention Disclosure Incentive (IDI) Award - Pyoluteorin and Mindapyrrole B and their use in single and combination antimicrobial chemotherapy
Olivia Love
Email address: olivia.love@utah.edu
Lab: Dr. Thomas Cheatham, III
Background:
Olivia received her Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Idaho State University in 2019. She then went through the Biological Chemistry side of the Bioscience PhD Program and found her way to the Department of Medicinal Chemistry where she joined the lab of Dr. Thomas Cheatham III in 2020. Her thesis research revolves around molecular dynamic simulations of biomolecular systems where she studies various inter/intramolecular interactions. She has experience working with protein and nucleic acid systems, focusing on AMBER force field evaluation and improvement.
Research Interests:
Molecular dynamics, AMBER, proteins, DNA, RNA, drug design
Publication:
Love, O., Lima, M.C.P., Clark, C., Cornillie, S., Roalstad, S.M., and Cheatham, T.E., “Evaluating the accuracy of the AMBER protein force fields in modeling dihydrofolate reductase structures: misbalance in the conformational arrangements of the flexible loop domains.” Journal of biomolecular structure & dynamics, 1-15. 15 Jul. 2022, doi:10.1080/07391102.2022.2098823
Hanfei Wang
Email address: hanfei.wang@utah.edu
Lab: Barrios
Background:
Hanfei obtained his bachelor’s degree with a double major in chemistry and economics from Vanderbilt University of 2017, and completed an honors thesis in the lab of Dr. Michael Stone. Afterwards, he worked in the lab of Dr. Pamela Peralta-Yahya at the Georgia Institute of Technology as a technician, before joining the University of Utah Biosciences PhD program in the fall of 2018. He joined the lab of Dr. Amy Barrios in 2019, where he is discovering and characterizing inhibitors of the protein histidine phosphatase PHPT1. He has won the Roy Kuramoto and the Skaggs Graduate Research Fellowship in 2020 and 2021 respectively, and has served on the Recruiting Committee and the Advising Committee of the Bioscience PhD programs as well as the Student Advising Committee at the College of Pharmacy.
Research Interests:
PHPT1 is a protein histidine phosphatase that plays an important role in cellular biology. PHPT1 dephosphorylates diverse targets in the cell and thereby affects a wide variety of functions such as DNA regulation, cell growth, and fatty acid metabolism. Increased expression of PHPT1 has been found in lung cancer, hepatocarcinoma, and renal cancer. This points to a potential therapeutic target which has previously been unexplored.
My research focuses on the discovery of potent, selective PHPT1 inhibitors and the characterization of their potency and mechanism of action. These inhibitors can be used for elucidation of the physiological functions of PHPT1 as well as potential scaffolds for therapeutics targeting PHPT1.
So far, we have identified several small-molecule inhibitors of PHPT1 which inhibit PHPT1 in a time-dependent manner, suggesting an irreversible mechanism of inhibition. The first of these that we discovered are norstictic acid and stictic acid. More recently, we found that several derivatives of illudalic acid (illudalogs) are also time-dependent and are more potent than norstictic acid and stictic acid. My current work focuses on elucidating the mechanism of action of the illudalog inhibitors. In addition, I am also interested in the post-translational modifications of PHPT1 and am studying the effects of PHPT1 phosphorylation on its activity.
Awards:
Skaggs Graduate Research Fellowship, University of Utah College of Pharmacy, 2021-22; Roy Kuramoto Graduate Research Fellowship, University of Utah College of Pharmacy, 2020-21
Publication:
McCullough B.; Wang H.; Barrios A.; Inhibitor Screen Identifies Covalent Inhibitors of the Protein Histidine Phosphatase PHPT1, ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2022, 13, 1198–1201. Yasi E.; Eisen A., Wang H.; Sugianto W.; Minniefield A.; Hoover K.; Branham P.; Peralta-Yahya P. Rapid deorphanization of human olfactory receptors, Biochemistry 2019, 58, 2160-2166.
Erykah Starr
Email address: u1317786@utah.edu
Lab: Amy Barrios
Background:
I received my BS. Chemistry degree from Rhodes College, in Memphis, TN.
Research Interests:
Therapeutics, Chemical tools, Phosphatases and Kinases
Aarthi Venugopalan
Email address: aarthi.venugopalan@utah.edu
Lab: Eric W. Schmidt
Background:
I received my Bachelors in Biopharmaceutical Technology from Anna University, Chennai. I completed my Masters in Biotechnology from the Indian Institute of Technology - Chennai. I worked briefly as a Program Analyst Trainee for Cognizant Technology Solutions.
Research Interests:
Biochemistry
Awards:
ARUP fellowship 2019
Daniel Hansen
Email address: daniel.hansen@pharm.utah.edu
Lab: Barrios Lab
Background:
Daniel received his Associates of Arts from Utah State University in 2015. He subsequently received his Bachelor's in Chemistry from the University of Utah in 2017, conducting undergraduate research in the Hill Lab. He continued to be a part of the U research community as a Lab Technician in the Shen lab. Dan then joined the Biological Chemistry program in 2019, joining The Barrios Lab in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry spring of 2020.
Research Interests:
Structural Biology, Biochemistry, Drug Development
Awards:
PITCH Honorable Mention 2020
Publications:
Cooney, I.; Han, H.; Stewart, M. G.; Carson, R. H.; Hansen, D. T.; Iwasa, J. H.; Price, J. C.; Hill, C. P.; Shen, P. S. Structure of the Cdc48 Segregase in the Act of Unfolding an Authentic Substrate. Science (80-. ). 2019, 365 (6452), 502–505. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aax0486.
Youjung Sung
Email address: youjung.sung@pharm.utah.edu
Lab: Schmidt Lab
Background:
Youjung received her BS in earth environmental science from Korea University in 2014, and received MS in oceanography from Seoul National University in 2016. She came into the University of Utah in 2017 through the BC program, and joined Eric Schmidt lab in 2018.
Research Interests:
Shipworm symbionts, natural products, biosynthesis, total synthesis
Lauren Winkler
Email address: lauren.winkler@utah.edu
Lab: Cheatham
Background:
Lauren obtained her B.S. of Biochemistry from Villanova University in 2019. She came to the University of Utah through the Biological Chemistry track of the Bioscience Ph.D. Program the following fall. In spring of 2020, she joined the lab of Dr. Thomas Cheatham III in the Medicinal Chemistry department. Under the guidance of Dr. Cheatham, her research centers on molecular dynamics simulations of nucleic acids for applications to computer-based drug design. In particular, her thesis work focuses on method and tool development for increased accuracy of molecular dynamics simulations of noncanonical nucleic acids as potential therapies and drug targets.
Research Interests:
molecular dynamics simulations, computational chemistry, nucleic acids, computer-based drug design, structural biology, method development, force fields
Awards:
Skaggs Graduate Research Fellowship 2022
Certificates:
ASBMB Certification with Distinction
Publications:
Galindo-Murillo, R.; Winkler, L.; Ma, J.; Hanelli, F.; Fleming, A. M.; Burrows, C. J.; Cheatham, T. E. Riboflavin Stabilizes Abasic, Oxidized G-Quadruplex Structures. Biochemistry 2022, 61 (4), 265– 275. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.biochem.1c00598. Galindo-Murillo, R.; Winkler, L.; García-Ramos, J. C.; Ruiz-Azuara, L.; Cortés-Guzmán, F.; Cheatham, T. E. Ancillary Ligand in Ternary CuII Complexes Guides Binding Selectivity toward Minor-Groove DNA. J. Phys. Chem. B 2020, 124 (51), 11648–11658. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c09296.
Ying Cong
Email address: ying.cong@utah.edu
Lab: Schmidt Lab
Background:
Ying Cong got her Bachelor’s degree in the field of pharmacy from Tianjin University (2013-2017). During undergraduate, she took part in several organic synthesis project. She went to Taiwan as an exchange student in National Chiao Tung Unviersity during 2016 for half year. She stayed in Tianjin University during 2017-2018 as a research assistant. She joined the Department of Medicinal Chemistry in University of Utah as a graduate research assistant in 2018 until now. She joined in Schmidt Lab in 2019 and focused on the biosynthesis of natural small molecules.
Research Interests:
Natural product - Ripps biosynthesis pathway
Kudos:
Kuramoto Graduate Research Award 2021 University of Utah, Skaggs College of Pharmacy
Publications:
Desong Sun, Xiaoyuan Zhao, Bobo Zhang, Ying Cong, et al, Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis. 2018, 360(8): 1634-1638 Jiyun Sun, Guangchen Li, Guangtao Zhang, Ying Cong, et al. 2018, 360(13): 2476-2481 Xiang Zhang, Ying Cong, et al. Chin. J. Org. Chem., 2016, 36(11): 2513-2529 Xiang Zhang, Xintong Wan, Ying Cong, Xiaohua Zhen, et al. J. Org. Chem. 2019, 84(16): 10402-10411 Yiwu Zheng, Ying Cong, Eric W. Schmidt, and Satish K Nair. Acc. Chem. Res. 2022, 55(9), 1313-1323 Nguyet Nguyen, Ying Cong, Rachel Hurrell, et al. ACS Chem. Bio. 2022, 17, 1577-1585 Ying Cong, Paul Scesa, Eric Schmidt. ACS Syn. Bio., 2022, 11(11), 3699-3705
Noel Lacerna
Email address: noel.lacerna@utah.edu
Lab: Schmidt Lab
Background:
Noel earned his Bachelor's and Master's degree in University of the Philippines-Diliman. While working in his degree, he worked as a Research Assistant in PMS-ICBG program searching for compounds from mollusk symbionts with potential biological applications.
Research Interests:
Chemical cology, Natural products discovery and biosynthesis with focus on ribosomal peptides, High-throughput biological screening and protein engineering
Publications:
Lacerna et.al., Inhibition of Biofilm Formation by Modified Oxylipins from the Shipworm Symbiont Teredinibacter turnerae. Mar. Drugs 2020, 18(12), 656. Lacerna et.al., Mindapyrroles A-C, Pyoluteorin Analogues from a Shipworm-Associated Bacterium. (2019). J. Nat. Prod. 2019, 82, 4, 1024-1028.
Garrison Nickel
Email address: garrison.nickel@utah.edu
Lab: Katharine Diehl
Background:
Garrison received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Brigham Young University in 2020, where he worked with Dr. Steven Castle on developing organic radical cyclization reactions initiated by microwave irradiation. He then moved to the University of Utah for his doctoral work, where he joined the Diehl lab. He currently works on identifying reader/writer domains of nuclear proteins which interact with noncanonical histone modifications, such as histone lactylation.
Research Interests:
Metabolism, Chromatin, Epigenetics, Histone post-translational modifications, Chemical biology
Certificates:
BS Biochemistry, Brigham Young University, 2020
Awards:
Willard Eccles Fellowship 2022-23
Publications:
Singh, J.; Nelson, T.; Mansfield, S.; Nickel, G.; Cai, Y.; Jones, D.; Small, J.; Ess, D.; Castle, S. Microwave- and Thermally-Promoted Iminyl Radical Cyclizations: A Versatile Method for the Synthesis of Functionalized Pyrrolines. Manuscript submitted to J. Org. Chem. 2022. Nickel, G.A.; Diehl, K.L. Chemical Biology Approaches to Identify and Profile Interactors of Chromatin Modifications (a review). ACS Chem. Biol. 2022, doi: 10.1021/acschembio.1c00794. Singh, J.; Nickel, G.A.; Cai, Y.; Jones, D.D.; Nelson, T.J.; Small, J.E.; Castle, S.L. Synthesis of Functionalized Pyrrolines via Microwave-Promoted Iminyl Radical Cyclizations. Org. Lett. 2021, 23, 3970-3974.
Nicole Rueb
Email address: nicole.jean.rueb@pharm.utah.edu
Lab: Barrios
Background:
I earned my B.S. in chemistry from the University of Idaho in 2014 where I studied organic synthesis. Now, I am a Ph.D. candidate and graduate student at the University of Utah in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. I am currently studying the enzymology of phosphatases by chemical synthesis, assay development and cellular validation. I am particularly skilled in probing the mechanism of action for covalent inhibitors and structure activity relationship (SAR) for rational design as well as technical writing and science communication.
Research Interests:
Drug development, drug discovery, SAR, design & synthesis, assay development, translational chemistry
Awards:
PITCH Honorable Mention (2019) INBRE Fellowships (2017-2018)
Publications:
Matthew Blake, Ryan Gardner, Haihong Jin, Melanie Staffenson, Nicole J. Rueb, Amy M. Barrios, Gregory Dudley. Michael Cohen, Beth Habecker; ACS Chemical Neuroscience. (2022) “Novel small molecules promote sympathetic nerve regeneration” Harvey F. Fulo, Nicole J. Rueb, Robert Gaston Jr, Paratchata Batsomboon, Kh Tanvir Ahmed, Amy M. Barrios, Gregory B. Dudley; Org. Biomol. Chem. (2021) “Synthesis of illudalic acid and analogous phosphatase inhibitors” Mike Lemke, Hannah Ravenscroft, Nicole J. Rueb, Dana Ferraris, Raphael M. Franzini; BMCL (2020) “Integrating DNA-encoded chemical libraries with virtual combinatorial library screening: Optimizing a PARP10 inhibitor”
Georgia Morgan
Email address: georgia.morgan@pharm.utah.edu
Lab: Winter
Background:
Georgia obtained a Bachelors of Science from California State University, Los Angeles, in 2020. While an undergraduate, Georgia worked in the lab of Dr. Yixian Wang and was awarded two undergraduate fellowships. Georgia was also awarded the Univresity of Utah Graduate Research fellowship in 2022.
Research Interests:
Natural products, Great Salt Lake, metallophores, antibiotic resistance
Awards:
Utah Graduate Research Fellowship
Publications:
Recent Advances in Nanosensors Built with Pre-Pulled Glass Nanopipettes and Their Applications in Chemical and Biological Sensing