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
Publication:
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.
Olivia Love
Email address: olivia.love@utah.edu
Lab: Cheatham
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.
Youjung Sung
Email address: u1138977@utah.edu
Lab: Schmidt
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
Ying Cong
Email address: ying.cong@utah.edu
Lab: Schmidt
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