ACCOMPLISHMENTS
STBB Trainee Accomplishments
MOVING ON UP!
Postdoc, Dr. Anna-Lena Steckelberg will be starting her own lab at Columbia University in January; her initial research will be coronavirus work she started over 2 years ago (when nobody cared about coronaviruses)!
AWARDS AND HONORS
Postdoc, Dr. Steve Bonilla is a semifinalist for an HHMI Hannah Gray Award!
AWARDS AND HONORS
Postdoc, Dr. Madeline Sherlockwas also a semifinalist for an HHMI Hannah Gray Award!
AWARDS AND HONORS
In October, Rachel Culp-Hill was selected for the 2019-2020 ARCS Scholar Award!
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Postdoc, Dr. Erik Hartwick (former STBB student, now a Postdoc at Columbia) will receive an F32 fellowship.
GRANT AND FELLOWSHIPS
Postdoc, Dr. Steve Bonilla will receive a new F32 fellowship for his proposal on using cryoEM to study RNA.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Postdoc, Dr. Madeline Sherlock received a prestigious Jane Coffin Childs PD Fellowship.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Rachel Culp-Hill was awarded an F31 through NCI for her project, “Alterations in fatty acid metabolism in the pathogenesis of leukemic stem cells from Acute Myeloid Leukemia patients”.
GRANT AND FELLOWSHIPS
Maxwell McCabe and Dr. Chris Erickson, a new postdoc in Dr. Kirk Hansen’s lab were awarded a “2020 Single-Cell Technology Development Program” RBI grant! Using this funding, they plan to assess immune cell response to varying dECM scaffolds using single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) in order to identify scaffold components which elicit a pro-regenerative response.
AWARDS AND HONORS
Postdoc, Dr. Ben Akiyama received a “best poster award” from the RNA Society 2020 Annual meeting.
STBB Faculty Accomplishments
SERVICE
Dr. Jeff Kieft and Dr. Olivia Rissland have been serving as scientific advisors for the Make4COVID effort, which supplied tens of thousands of units of PPE all over Colorado.
RESEARCH ON THE EDGE
KIEFT LAB: The Kieft lab has several COVID-related projects. The most interesting is an active drug-discovery collaboration with the NIH. Based on Dr. Anna-Lena Steckelberg’s assay and cell-line development we started a collaboration with NCATS to find new small molecules that can block SARS-CoV-2 protein nsp1. The idea received rapid approval from NIH leadership, they moved 3-4 expert people onto the project, and are fully funding it.
VOGELI LAB: The research of Dr. Beat Vogeli's Lab was featured in German press: Bewegte Bilder statt Fotos, Neulich an der Bench (190): Strukturanalyse mit der NMR, 2019, Labor Journal, 09, 60-63
VOGELI LAB: COVID-19 research in Dr. Beat Vogeli's Lab is focusing on NBD of Spike protein and its interactions.
NOTABLE PUBLICATIONS
June, 2019 | Dr. Beat Vogeli's lab recently published 5 articles, one of which featured on the issue cover of Chemical Communications (Grohe et al., 2019, Chem Comm, 55, 7899-7902)
2019 | Dr. Beat Vogeli's research was featured in German press: Bewegte Bilder statt Fotos, Neulich an der Bench (190): Strukturanalyse mit der NMR, 2019, Labor Journal, 09, 60-63
IN THE MEDIA
July, 2020 | Dr. Kirk Hansen and Dr. Angelo D’Alessandro were featured in Reuters and the New York Times for their work on COVID! Their research was re-posted and/or commented on by: Nasdaq.com, News Medical, Yahoo Finance, and the CU Anschutz Cancer Center blogs here and here.
June, 2020 | Dr. Tatiana Kutateladze published a commentary on COVID-19 structural studies in Nature Communications which has been tweeted and downloaded numerous times! Check out the article.
GRANTS AND AWARDS
Dr. Srinivas Ramchandran was named Pew-Stewart Scholar in June 2020!
Dr. Jeff Kieft received an NIH Administrative supplement of $250,000
- This award will go towards the purchase a new Helium Recovery system for the NMR facility.
Dr. Brian Wimberly and Dr. Olivia Rissland are co-PIs on a new R21 proposal.
- They aim to study the structure of the Giardia 80S Ribosome by cryo-EM and biochemistry. Both are preparing a high-profile publication now.
Dr. Quentin Vicens received a very high score on an NIH R21 proposal that we expect to be funded.
- STBB student, Conner Langeberg will be helping on this project.
Dr. Jeff Kieft is a finalist for an NIH “Transformative R01” from the NIH Directors Office to develop an new RNA-based technology
- Decision is pending
Dr. Carlos Catalano has received funded grants and a CoV proposal for 2019!
- NSF #MCB 2016019 | Catalano (PI) | 7/1/20-6/30/24. Biochemical, Biophysical and Structural Characterization of Phage Lambda Capsid Assembly and Maturation. This project proposes an integrated series of genetic, biochemical, biophysical, structural and computational studies that seek to define essential but ill-characterized protein-protein interactions central to virus assembly. Given that assembly mechanisms are strongly conserved in all of the dsDNA viruses, both prokaryotic and eukaryotic, this study has broad biological implications.
- DOD #200555 | Catalano (co-PI) | 9/1/20-8/30/22. Designer Nanoparticles” for Immunotherapeutic Treatment of Bladder Cancer. The goals of this project are to test the hypothesis that current immunotherapy approaches for bladder cancer will be improved through targeted use of phage-like particles (PLPs), which will be used as theranostic agents to both diagnose and stimulate a durable anti-tumor immune response through activation of the STING pathway.
- NIH R21 AI159978 | Catalano (PI) | 4/01/21-03/31/23. Designer Nanoparticles as a Rapidly Adaptable CoV Vaccine Platform. In this application we propose to develop tools and technologies for rapid screening of vaccine candidates, herein for SARS-CoV-2 but that can be applied to virtually any pathogenic target.
Dr. Angelo D’Alessandro received the following new grants and awards in just the last 12 months!
- Grants include: three R01's, an RM1, and an R21
- Awards include: Jean Julliard Award 2020 (International Society for Blood Transfusion) and the National Blood Foundation Innovation Award 2020 (American Association of Blood Banks).
Dr. Tatiana Kutateladze was award 3 new R01’s!
- R01 GM135671 (Kutateladze) | 01/01/20-11/30/23. NIH/NIGMS: Epigenetic mechanisms for regulation of p300.
- R01 HL151334 (Kutateladze) | 05/15/20-04/30/24. NIH/NHLBI: The role of JADE in HBO complexes.
- R01 CA252707 (Kutateladze) | 07/01/20-06/30/25. NIH/NCI: Molecular analysis of ASH1L.
Dr. Srinivas Ramchandran’s lab received the NIGMS MIRA grant
- Funding started on Aug 1, 2019
Dr. Beat Vogeli was awarded two new grants!
- NSF/IIBR: Infrastructure Innovation for Biological Research, 1917254, "Exact internuclear distance and dynamics measurements in RNA molecules by a novel nuclear magnetic resonance technique“, October 1/2019 – September 30/2022
- NIH/NIGMS, R01GM130694-01A1, "Dynein - adaptor interaction mechanisms and malfunction at atomic resolution“, August 1/2019 – July 31/2023