Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

July Issue #6/Summer 2017

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

The UF College of Medicine recently announced five faculty members that have been appointed to UF Research Foundation (UFRF) Professorships for 2017. These awards, given to tenured faculty who have a distinguished record of research, aim to recognize professors for their recent contributions and provide incentives for continued excellence in research.

The Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is pleased to congratulate Dr. Suming Huang, Professor, in receiving this distinguished honor!

The primary selection criteria includes the professor's performance in the past five years and evidence of a strong research agenda that is likely to lead to continuing distinction in the professor's field.

At the conclusion of the three-year UFRF Professorship term, the recipients will provide a short report to the Vice President for Research reviewing their accomplishments during the period they held the award and their expectations for the future.

The four additional recipients of this award are ?

Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology

Stephanie M. Karst, Ph.D. | Associate Professor

Department of Pediatrics

Barry J. Byrne, M.D., Ph.D. | Professor

Michael J. Haller, M.D. | Professor

Desmond A. Schatz, M.D. | Professor

Page 2

STUDENT NEWS AND AWARDS

Bronze Award: Rosha Poudyal | Biochemistry & M olecular Biology Mentor: Michael Kladde, PhD The Epigenomes of Latent and Lytic Kaposi's SarcomaAssociated Herpesvirus

Council of Academic Chairs Scholarship Recipient: Carrie Lomelino | Biochemistry & M olecular Biology Mentor: Robert McKenna, PhD

Advancement to Candidacy Award Recipients Avni Bhatt | Biochemistry & M olecular Biology Mentor: Robert McKenna, PhD

Carrie Lomelino | Biochemistry & M olecular Biology Mentor: Robert McKenna, PhD

ROSHA POUDYAL CARRIE LOMELINO

AVNI BHATT

Kristen Solocinski, Ph.D. Graduate Student, was selected to receive an American Physiological Society (APS) Caroline tum Suden/ Frances Hellebrandt Professional Opportunity Award and presented her research at the 2017 Experimental Biology meeting in Chicago, April 22-26. Her abstract was entitled, "Sex-Dependent Regulation of Blood Pressure by the Circadian Clock Protein Per1." Solocinski, conducting her research in Dr. Michelle Gumz's laboratory, was among 36 men and women selected from over 100 applicants. This award, which carries a $500 prize, is a tribute to the role of Dr. Caroline tum Suden and Dr. Hellebrandt's commitment to physiological research and the advancement of women in science.

Pictured to the right are Kristen Solocinski, Doctoral Graduate Student, and Lauren Douma, Ph.D., former biochemistry graduate student, presenting their poster at this year's Experimental Biology meeting.

KRISTEN SOLOCINSKI

Page 3

Structure-guided evolution of antigenically distinct adeno-associated virus variants for

immune evasion

Longping Victor Tsea , Kelli A. Klinca , Victoria J. Madiganaa,b, Ruth M. Castellanos Riveraa, Lindsey F. Wellsa, L. Patrick Havlika,b, J. Kennon Smithc,d, Mavis Agbandje-McKennac,d, and Aravind Asokana,b,e,1

aGene Therapy Center, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599; bDepartment of Genetics, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC; 27599; cDepartment of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611; dCenter for Structural Biology, The McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611; and eDepartment of Biochemistry and Biophysics, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599

Journal: E4812?E4821 | PNAS | Published online May 30, 2017

Click here for full article.

Significance: P reexisting neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) pose a major, unresolved challenge that restricts patient enrollment in gene therapy clinical trials using recombinant AAV vectors. Structural studies suggest that despite a high degree of sequence variability, antibody recognition sites or antigenic hotspots on AAVs and other related parvoviruses might be evolutionarily conserved. To test this hypothesis, we developed a structure-guided evolution approach that does not require selective pressure exerted by NAbs. This strategy yielded highly divergent antigenic footprints that do not exist in natural AAV isolates. Specifically, synthetic variants obtained by evolving murine antigenic epitopes on an AAV serotype 1 capsid template can evade NAbs without compromising titer, transduction efficiency, or tissue tropism. One lead AAV variant generated by combining multiple evolved antigenic sites effectively evades polyclonal anti-AAV1 neutralizing sera from immunized mice and rhesus macaques. Furthermore, this variant displays robust immune evasion in nonhuman primate and human serum samples at dilution factors as high as 1:5, currently mandated by several clinical trials. Our results provide evidence that antibody recognition of AAV capsids is conserved across species. This approach can be applied to any AAV strain to evade NAbs in prospective patients for human gene therapy. For more information see UF Health website.

Page 4

Three alumni of the UF Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology were recently reunited in Chicago at the FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) meeting. From left to right, (1) Michelle Gumz, Ph.D., Department of Medicine/Nephrology, BMB Department/2004 graduate of the Dr. Brian Cain lab, (2) Fangliang Zhang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pharmacology/ University of Miami, BMB Department/2005 graduate of the Dr. Dan Purich lab, (3) Debbie Zies, Ph.D., Associate P rofessor of Biology at the University of Mary Washington, BMB Department/2003 graduate of the Dr. Brian Cain lab.

Brittany Rife Magalis

Friday, 7/21, 2:00pm Topic: Evolutionary Dynamics and Phyloanatomy of Intra-host HIV/ SIV Subpopulations During Disease Progression Location: ARB R3-265

CENTER FOR STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY SEMINAR SERIES

CENTER FOR EPIGENETICS

BMB FACULTY RESEARCH DISCUSSIONS

There will be no departmental seminars during the remainder of Summer 2017 semester. Fall 2017 sessions will be announced early in the semester.

BMB JOURNAL CLUB/BCH 6936 EPIGENETICS JOURNAL CLUB/GMS 6195 STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY JOURNAL CLUB/BCH 6875

NO SESSIONS UNTIL FALL 2017 SEMESTER

Page 5

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download