Newsletter (Vol. 3)

We kicked off the 2021-2022 academic year with a CMB orientation event. We welcomed back 8 returning students and got to know 3 new students. Our 11 Ph.D. students are being advised by 7 faculty from 4 different departments in 3 different colleges.

Congratulations to Rahul Singh (Biological Sciences) who earned his Ph.D. in CMB this fall! Rahul was mentored by CMB faculty member Dr. Katie Reindl. His research focused on the role of glutathione S-transferase pi-1 in pancreatic cancer. Thanks to Dr. Pawel Borowicz, Dr. D.K. Srivistava, and Dr. John Wilkinson for serving on Rahul’s examining committee. Rahul accepted a postdoctoral fellowship position at Weill Cornell Medicine where he is working on translational approaches to treating bladder cancer. Congratulations, Dr. Singh!

Shubhashri Ambhore joined the lab of Dr. Sanku Mallik (Pharmaceutical Sciences). Shubhashri’s research is focused on the novel molecular pathways for therapeutic targeting of triple negative breast cancer using various state of art techniques. She received her MS in Pharmaceutical Analysis from JSS University, Mysore, India. She enjoys traveling and drawing in her free time. Welcome, Shubhashri!

Jacob Tesch joined the lab of Dr. Sathish Venkatachalem (Pharmaceutical Sciences) where he will study differential sex signaling and its role in asthma. Jacob received his B.S. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Minnesota State University-Moorhead. Following this, he trained at the biotechnology company Aldevron. Jacob enjoys cooking, reading, and camping in his free time. Welcome, Jacob!

Kazi Sarjana Safain joined the lab of Dr. Sheela Ramamoorthy (Microbiological Sciences) where she is developing in vitro culture systems for the torque teno virus and evaluating synergistic replication of viruses. Kazi completed her BS in Microbiology in 2017 and M.S. in Biotechnology in 2020 from BRAC University in Bangladesh where she studied infectious diseases and multidrug-resistant pathogens. She was a core member of the team who developed the first COVID-19 RT-PCR kit in Bangladesh. Welcome, Kazi!

CMB student, Gauthami Nair, and her mentors, Dr. Mohi Quadir (Coatings & Polymeric Materials) and Dr. Katie Reindl (Biological Sciences), published a paper, “Polymeric Composite Matrix with High Biobased Content as Pharmaceutically Relevant Molecular Encapsulation and Release Platform”. [https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.1c03805] Congratulations, Gauthami!

Former CMB student, Dr. Yang Mei, and her mentor, Dr. Sangita Sinha, published a manuscript, “Transient Unfolding and Long-range Interactions in Viral BCL2 M11 Enable Binding to the BECN1 BH3 Domain” in Biomolecules. Congratulations, Dr. Mei and Dr. Sinha!