News

University of Kentucky College of Medicine researcher Sidney Whiteheart has been awarded a prestigious Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute (NHBLI) for his research on how platelets function in hemostasis and during immune responses. The $6.6 million grant will fund the Molecular & Cellular Biochemistry professor’s research over the next seven years. The study, which Whiteheart is leading in collaboration with researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, and the University of Pennsylvania,

The Department had nine publications listed in PubMed for the month of March 2020.

1: Jin H, Moseley HNB. Robust Moiety Model Selection Using Mass Spectrometry Measured Isotopologues. Metabolites. 2020 Mar 21;10(3). pii: E118. doi: 10.3390/metabo10030118. PubMed PMID: 32245221.

2: Welden JR, Pawluchin A, van Doorn J, Stamm S. Use of Alu Element Containing Minigenes to Analyze Circular RNAs. J Vis Exp. 2020 Mar 10;(157). doi: 10.3791/59760. PubMed PMID: 32225139.

Here are the various links and things I've been sending out while we're all the doing the work from home thing:

Work and career:

The Department had ten publications listed in PubMed for the month of February 2020.

1: Abeysinghe R, Hinderer EW, Moseley HNB, Cui L. SSIF: Subsumption-based Sub-term Inference Framework to Audit Gene Ontology. Bioinformatics. 2020 Feb 17. pii: btaa106. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btaa106. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32065617.

The Department started the year with twelve publications listed in PubMed for the month of January 2020.

1: Wei M, Haney MG, Rivas DR, Blackburn JS. Protein tyrosine phosphatase 4A3 (PTP4A3/PRL-3) drives migration and progression of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in vitro and in vivo. Oncogenesis. 2020 Jan 30;9(1):6. doi: 10.1038/s41389-020-0192-5. PubMed PMID: 32001668; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6992623.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine have found that a class of antibiotics called aminoglycosides could be a promising treatment for frontotemporal dementia.

Results of their proof of concept study, which was a collaborative effort between UK’s Department of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry and the University of California San Francisco’s Department of Pathology, were recently published in the journal, Human Molecular Genetics.

Happy New Year all! I hope this is a good one for everyone.

The Department finished the year with nine publications listed in PubMed for the month of December 2019.

1: Chaton CT, Rodriguez ES, Reed RW, Li J, Kenner CW, Korotkov KV. Structural analysis of mycobacterial homoserine transacetylases central to methionine biosynthesis reveals druggable active site. Sci Rep. 2019 Dec 30;9(1):20267. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-56722-2. PubMed PMID: 31889085.

In November the Department had seven new publications listed in PubMed.

1: Li H, Li J, Han R, Deng X, Shi J, Huang H, Hamad N, McCaughley A, Liu J, Wang C, Chen K, Wei D, Qiang J, Thatcher S, Wu Y, Liu C, Thibault O, Wei X, Chen S, Qian H, Zhou BP, Xu P, Yang XH. Deletion of tetraspanin CD151 alters the Wnt oncogene-induced mammary tumorigenesis: A cell type-linked function and signaling. Neoplasia. 2019 Nov 26;21(12):1151-1163. doi: 10.1016/j.neo.2019.08.005. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31783316.

In October the Department had eight new publications listed in PubMed.

1: Burggraaf MJ, Speer A, Meijers AS, Ummels R, van der Sar AM, Korotkov KV, Bitter W, Kuijl C. Type VII Secretion Substrates of Pathogenic Mycobacteria Are Processed by a Surface Protease. MBio. 2019 Oct 29;10(5). pii: e01951-19. doi: 10.1128/mBio.01951-19. PubMed PMID: 31662454.

And now for something a little different... Instead of suggesting something to read this month I'm going to suggest something to listen to (thanks for Bobby Murphy for this idea!). There are a lot of podcasts out there, including a lot that are science-based. One that looks particularly interesting comes from the BBC and is called "The Life Scientific". A different scientist is interviewed in each episode, providing insight into different fields, the different paths people take, and a variety of careers.

In September the Department had ten new publications listed in PubMed.

1: Zhang J, Liu Y, Jiang K, Jia J. Hedgehog signaling promotes lipolysis in adipose tissue through directly regulating Bmm/ATGL lipase. Dev Biol. 2019 Sep 21. pii: S0012-1606(19)30338-0. doi: 10.1016/j.ydbio.2019.09.009. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31550483.

Decades of research and treatment advances have helped extend the lives of many people living with HIV, but while these patients live longer, their risk of developing dangerous blood clots increases as much as tenfold. Blood clots – also known as thrombi – can wreak havoc on the body, causing events such as debilitating strokes and heart attacks.

Some academics like to make fun of LinkedIn, but that's because they don't really use it. A LOT of people outside of academia, and some inside, do. And you should too. LinkedIn is a sort of professional social media platform. And like all social media platforms, you can't get anything much out of it unless you contribute. Many academics will sign up, connect with a bunch of other academics, then sit back and wonder what was the point since it wasn't doing anything for them.

The world of pediatric cancer treatment has seen huge advancements in treatments over the past 60 years – in the 1950s, less than 10 percent of children were cured of their cancer. Today, the number of survivors is nearly 80 percent.

However, that still means that one in five children diagnosed with cancer will not survive. Many childhood cancers can be extremely difficult to treat, and research is key to developing new, better therapies for these diseases.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center have made a breakthrough discovery that solves a mystery long forgotten by science and have identified a potentially novel avenue in pre-clinical models to treat non-small cell lung cancers.

This month's suggested reading is "How to Write a Lot: A Practical Guide to Productive Academic Writing" by Paul Silvia. Some people find writing easy. Some find it hard. Either way, from your graduate training on you get to do a lot of it. This slim volume (just 110 pages!) provides some guidelines to help you get it done (hint: just do it).

Find it here!

In August the Department had six new publications listed in PubMed.

1: Slaughter KB, Dutch RE. Transmembrane domain dissociation is required for Hendra F protein fusogenic activity. J Virol. 2019 Aug 28. pii: JVI.01069-19. doi: 10.1128/JVI.01069-19. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 31462574.

I know you've heard it before. Maybe even from me. But it's true. You need a CV and you need to keep it up to date. CV stands for curriculum vitae - "the course of your life." It should be a record of all your career-related achievements. The best thing to do is put everything you think might be related in there. Add things as they occur.

Like it or not, you will end up in a leadership position. You may already be in one. It's good to start thinking about this sooner rather than later. This month's suggested reading, which is based on extensive research by the authors, will help you understand what makes someone a good leader. Have a look at "The Extraordinary Leader" by John Zenger and Joseph Folkman. It's considered a classic in the leadership field.