Thursday, June 16, 2011

Chemistry Biology Interface Training Grant Symposium Recap

Chemistry-Biology Interface Training Grant Symposium
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
University of Minnesota, Mayo Auditorium



The Chemistry Biology Interface Training Grant Symposium is held annually as part of the University of Minnesota's NIH-funded grant of the same name. The day's events included a midday poster session and mix of external and internal speakers, including a grant trainee.


Mark Distefano opened the morning with introductory remarks before the first speaker, Rami Hannoush from Genentech. His talk, "Chemical Probes for Inhibiting Wnt Signaling and Visualizing Protein Fatty Acylation," was focused on two subjects. The first part was centered around his work on studying protein-protein interactions and assembly of Wnt signaling complexes in order to discover drugs that interrupt Wnt signaling for cancer. Switching gears, Rami then presented research on the use of fatty acid analogs for imaging protein modification by lipids. This was a fantastic talk that demonstrated the power of new methods for the design of biological probes useful in drug discovery.


Rami Hannoush (Genentech) with Professor Yusuf Abul-Hajj.
Click picture to see more photos from the symposium.


Next up was Leah Randles, a fifth year graduate student and 2007–2009 grant trainee from Kylie Walters' lab, with her talk "Regulation of the Proteasomal Ubiquitin Receptor Rpn13." She presented a lot of intriguing work on using various NMR solution structures to study the role of hPLIC2 as a negative regulator of Rpn13 activity. Leah fielded a lot of questions and spoke with many people about her findings after the talk.


Over 30 posters were presented over lunch in the lobby of Mayo Auditorium. There were a lot of outstanding posters, and much discussion ensued amongst the participants during the 90 minute session.


Intense studying at the poster session.
Click picture to see more photos from the symposium.


Following lunch and the poster session was Professor Adrian Hegeman from the Department of Horticultural Sciences at Minnesota with a presentation entitled "Plant Metabolomics Methodology: Using in Vivo Stable-Isotope Labeling for Elemental Composition Assignments." I was unfamiliar with his work, so this talk was a fascinating insight as to how plant metabolomics can be used to study plant behavior and production of nutrients and responses to stress.


Joseph Beckman from Oregon State University then provided a thought-provoking talk on peroxynitrite, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) titled "Oxidative Stress and the Chemical Biology of Neurodegeneration: Did Free Radicals Kill Lou Gehrig?" Much of the talk focused on post-translational modification of proteins by nitration of tyrosine residues and evidence that mutations to SOD are involved in ALS. The role of nitration in the regulation of protein function, particularly Hsp90, was also presented.


I unfortunately had to miss the final lecture of day delivered by Leona Samson from MIT on "Complex Biological Responses to DNA Damage." The entire event was a wonderful learning experience, and the organizing committee did an exceptional job of delivering a fantastic program that reflects the diversity and importance of chemical biology research.

No comments:

Post a Comment